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Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity

My Lords, first, I declare my interest as a member of Newcastle City Council. Our democracy is underpinned by four principles: the right to vote, freedom of speech, an independent judiciary and a free press. In the context of having a free press, I agree entirely with my noble friend Lord Fowler. The Government should not be the publisher of newspapers and—for that reason—nor should local government. This is not what governments exist for. The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity was introduced to prevent party political literature masquerading as official council newsletters. In my time, I saw enough of them to know that a code was necessary and that some limitations needed to be applied. I continued to support that position and the need for a code to exist. However, we should be aware that there are already restrictions in the existing code. The current one says that local authority publicity should seek to raise public awareness of the services provided by the council and the functions it performs, explaining to electors and council tax payers the reasons for particular policies and priorities and enabling them to have an informed say about issues affecting them. As for subject matter, councils have a very wide range of statutory powers to produce and circulate publicity and to explain statutory matters to the general public, as the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, pointed out. Some of those powers relate specifically to the work of the council whereas others are discretionary, enabling the council to publicise matters which go beyond its primary responsibilities. However, in the context of localism, the drive to localism and the Localism Bill, it is very hard to see why councils should in future be restricted from pursuing a wider agenda in terms of public service provision in their localities. Indeed, councils should always seek to ensure that publicity is relevant to their functions and does not duplicate unnecessarily the publicity produced by other agencies, which of course includes newspapers. It seems to me that the existing code is pretty reasonable, which begs the question of exactly why the changes are being introduced. Some of them we can agree with. I agree entirely with the view of my noble friend Lady Hanham on lobbyists. However, it is claimed that in recent years there has been a growth in the number and frequency of council newsletters and publications, and that 92 per cent of councils publish such newsletters. I think that that is a very good thing. I am very surprised that 8 per cent can deliver their statutory functions and not produce some kind of newsletter. In the context of localism, that is the direction of travel. If the general public do not like what is being said in these publications, they can vote out the councils at the ballot box. I accept that some council publications have become like commercial newspapers, although I am not aware of them being issued weekly; but the vast majority of council publications are simply not like that. However, there is an issue around advertising and commercial newspapers, and concerns have been expressed about frequency of publication and content. Councils are constantly being encouraged to earn income. Therefore, it is no surprise to learn that councillors of all parties have encouraged council newsletters to accept advertising to pay for their distribution and other costs. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, reminded us, only 1 per cent of councils have a weekly publication; most print quarterly. At the moment, one-third have no advertising at all. Therefore, the jury is out on the evidence base for saying that council magazines pose a threat to the local newspaper industry. In principle, I believe that councils should not produce newspapers. However, given that £40 million is spent by local councils on planning notices, even if all councils opted for quarterly publication, it would make little practical difference to the situation. Therefore, I do not think that there is a great deal of difference between having four or six publications. I do not understand why it is deemed necessary to legislate in this way with this code. I turn to what I think is an absurd proposal. The impact assessment contains various options, including an option to do nothing. It states: "““Option 1: Do nothing. This would mean that local authorities would be able to continue to produce free newspapers as frequently as once a week””." In the current financial climate, I doubt that that would be practical. We should note that 99 per cent do not do so. The impact assessment says that local authorities would be able to, "““emulate the style of commercial newspapers””." I accept absolutely the point made by my noble friend Lord Fowler in that regard. The document further states that local authorities would be able to, "““include material additional to facts about the council and its services such as crosswords, horoscopes and competitions that do not relate to the business of the authority””." Is it really the job of the Government to stipulate in the code whether crosswords, horoscopes and competitions should or should not be published in a quarterly council newspaper? Surely the whole thrust of localism is that we should let councils get on with it. As I say, I agree absolutely with the view expressed on lobbyists. I believe that that is correct, and I have not been happy when I have seen them being deployed—not in my own authority but elsewhere. However, I ask the Government to ensure that they follow the same practice as local councils are being asked to implement in this regard. Can we be reassured that the DCLG is not employing any lobbyists or PR companies elsewhere in the Government, given that local councils are to be banned from doing so? I turn to ““purdah”” and the two rules that apply within this code, about which no proposals are coming forward. Local government went into purdah at the end of last week in connection with the local elections in England that will take place on the first Thursday of May. Central Government have a purdah date three weeks before the official polling date of 14 April. I have never understood why central Government can make major announcements, say on project investment, only a few days before postal votes go out. That will occur this year in around the third week of April. That does not seem to be right. I propose that purdah should begin for all government agencies on the date of the publication of the notice of a poll, not on the publication of the notice of an election. I and, I hope, my noble friends support this measure as it is contained in the coalition agreement, and it is right that we should do so. However, I hope that this matter will be carefully reviewed. No timescale is given in the impact assessment of when it will be reviewed but I do not think that it is the business of government to legislate on whether a newsletter should be published quarterly or bi-monthly. We are in very great danger of producing a sledgehammer to crack a nut.