Pecuniary Interests

All Parish Councillors are required to complete a register of disclosable pecuniary interests, which must be published on the parish/town council’s web-site.  Copies of these documents have also been lodged with the Monitoring Officer of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, who maintains the register for all parish/town councils in the borough and makes copies of the registers available for inspection and publish them on its website.

Following the Localism Act 2011, the requirements for what must be included on the register have changed. The concept of ‘personal’ and ‘prejudicial’ interests is abolished, and replaced with a statutory requirement to register and disclose certain specified pecuniary interests defined in Regulations issued by the Government. The authority’s code of conduct may also include other pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests as it considers appropriate.

One important new provision is that members are required to register and disclose not only their own interests but also those of their spouse, civil partner, or person they are living with as spouse/civil partner, so far as they are aware that that person has the interest.

The Localism Act does not specify whether, and if so what, non-pecuniary interests have to be disclosed. It is up to individual Councils to make provision for this.

You can view the current Councillors register of interests here:  Parish councils – Hockley Heath Parish Council | Solihull City and District Council