Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he expects his Department will provide a final response to the issue first raised in correspondence of 6th April 2022 from the hon. Member for Southport on potential breaches of the Publicity Code; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average amount of time it takes his Department to resolve issues raised in correspondence from hon. Members.

The Publicity Code is guidance to which local authorities must have regard when producing publicity, defined as “any communication in whatever form, addressed to the public at large or a section of the public”. The Local Government Act 1986 gives the Secretary of State the power to issue Directions to secure compliance with one or more specified provisions of the Code, or all the provisions of the Code.

The Department has made enquiries with Sefton Council Chief Executive on this matter on two separate occasions in recent months and the Council’s responses are currently under active consideration. If and when a decision is taken to exercise the power to issue Directions that decision will be placed in the public domain in due course.