To present the Committee with an overview on the register of, and declarations of, interests made by Members from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026.

Members recalled that it had been agreed at the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 29 June 2016 that, as part of its annual work programme, the Committee would receive an annual report on declarations of interest and associated matters. The report now before the Committee covered the period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 and provided statistics on:

• the number of Declarations of Interest made at meetings;
• the number of offers of gifts and hospitality that had been registered by Members during this period; and
• updates to the Members’ Register of Interests.

The data had been collated from the Committee system Modern.Gov which the Council had started using as of August 2016 and from Members’ submissions.

Register of Members’ Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

The Committee was made aware that the Council was required to publish the ‘Register of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests’ on its website in accordance with the Localism Act 2011 and The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012, which prescribed the categories of interest.

It was confirmed that the Council’s website included a Register of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Registerable Interests for all District Councillors and that this was updated when an individual Member provided details of an amendment directly to the Monitoring Officer. Any entry which was relevant to a business item on an agenda, must be declared by the individual Member and they must subsequently remove themselves from the meeting, unless a prior dispensation had been granted by the Monitoring Officer.

The Committee was informed that there had been a dispensation for all District Members granted by the Monitoring Officer at full Council on 17 February 2026 for the purpose of the report of the Corporate Director (Finance & IT) as follows:

“Tendring District Council adopted the LGA Model Members’ Code of Conduct which does not include the provisions confirming Members do not have a declarable interest which relates to the function of setting the Council Tax under the Local Government Act 1992. Therefore, to enable you to debate and vote on the budget item to set the Council Tax, the email of 9 February 2026 provided all District Councillors with a dispensation under Section 33(2)(a) to (e) of the Localism Act 2011. Consequently, you will not be required to declare an interest based on the fact that you live in the District and therefore have to pay Council Tax.

However, Members are importantly reminded of Section 106 of the Local Government Act 1992, which provides that any Member, who is in arrears by at least 2 months with their Council Tax payments cannot vote on matters concerning either the level of or administration of Council Tax. It is important to note that this also covers Council Tax liabilities outside of the District and property which may not be your main residence. If present at the meeting, a Member to whom this provision applies must disclose the fact and may speak on the item but cannot vote. Non-compliance with this section is a criminal offence. Therefore, should this provision apply to any Member, this should be declared at the Declaration of Interest agenda item.”

Declarations of Interest at meetings

Members were required to declare Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, Other Registerable Interests and Non-Registerable Interests at meetings and those recorded on the Committee system, as declared by District Councillors for the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 were set out in the Appendix A to the Monitoring Officer’s report (A.1). The minutes of the relevant meetings also recorded the declarations.

Use of blanket dispensations

The Committee was reminded that this Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct did not include blanket dispensations. Consequently, the Monitoring Officer had provided District Members with a blanket dispensation for the purposes of setting Council Tax under the Local Government Finance Act 1992, at the District Council’s budget meeting on 17 February 2026 (minute 108 referred) (as referred to earlier within the Officer report (A.1). The Monitoring Officer had also stated the following in relation to that item:-

“A recorded vote is mandatory on any decision relating to the budget or Council Tax. This includes not only on the substantive budget motions agreeing the budget and setting Council Taxes, but also on any amendments proposed at the meeting.

I can inform Members that no budget amendments were submitted to the Council’s Section 151 Officer by the deadline set out in Council Procedure Rule 2.

For other types of Interest, which need to be considered, Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPIs), Other Registerable Interests (ORIs) or Non-Registerable Interests, are defined in the Code of Conduct and for DPIs and ORIs, these have been (or should have been) registered in advance, and with the exception of the Council Tax exemption for residing in the District, you should still consider if any other interest do apply. A blanket exemption/dispensation has not been applied for all.”

Declarations of offers/receipt of gifts and hospitality

Following the Standards Committee’s previous review of the Council’s Gift and Hospitality Policy for Members, guidance and a notification form had been produced for all District Councillors in May 2016. Reference to declarations of offers/receipt of gifts and hospitality had been included within the mandatory Members’ Code of Conduct training delivered by the Monitoring Officer in June and July 2023, and any subsequent Code of Conduct training.

There had not been any recorded declarations of offers/receipt of gifts and hospitality made by District Councillors in the time period covered by this Officer report.

Members’ Register of Interests

The Committee was made aware that, pursuant to the Localism Act 2011, within 28 days of becoming a Member or re-election or re-appointment to office, Members must register with the Monitoring Officer their interests which fell within the categories set out in Table 1 of the Members’ Code of Conduct, namely Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPIs) which were as described in ‘The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012’. Members should also register details of other personal interests which fell within the categories set out in Table 2 (Other Registerable Interest (ORIs)).

It was reported that, at the conclusion of the May 2023 District, Town and Parish Council elections, all Members had received the relevant Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and Other Registerable Interests form as part of their induction procedure, to complete and return to the Monitoring Officer, for inclusion on the Council’s website within a central register. Registration and the obligations to disclose DPIs, ORIs and Non-Registerable Interests and the effect on participation had been covered within the mandatory Members’ Code of Conduct training delivered by the Monitoring Officer in June and July 2023 and the refresher training provided on 18 June 2025.

In line with the requirements of the Council’s External Auditors, an annual reminder had been sent to all District Members to ensure that all interests were up to date and that remained ongoing. At the time of writing this Officer report (A.1), 23 out of 48 had been received; that figure was updated to 35 out of 48 at the meeting.

It was moved by Councillor Wiggins, seconded by Councillor Talbot and unanimously:-

RESOLVED that the Committee requests that Members be formally reminded to keep their Register of Interests’ entries up to date and to respond to Officer requests to confirm that their Members’ Register of Interests entries are up to date.