MHCLG reacts to remote meetings judgement
The government has dashed any hopes they may offer a last minute reprieve to councils wishing to continue holding remote meetings beyond 7 May by offering them any space in the legislative calendar for that purpose.
In reaction to the High Court ruling yesterday that councils meetings will no longer be able to take place remotely from 7 May, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said that “councils will need to return to face-to-face meetings after 6 May and should continue to prepare accordingly.”
They also said they were “grateful for the efforts of councils to ensure meetings could continue remotely over the past year”.
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The High Court has ruled against an application for councils in England to be allowed to continue to hold remote meetings when the temporary regulations on the pandemic expire.
It will effectively require local authorities to ensure that full council and committee meetings take place at a specific location and that being ‘present’ involves being in the room.
This will prevent them from continuing with holding the meetings through online platforms, which has been the norm since the Government suspended the requirement for physical meetings in April of last year in response to the Covid-19 lockdown.
The case had been taken to the court by Hertfordshire county Council with Local Government Lawyers (LLG) and the Association of Democratic Services Officers (ADSO). They argued that the decision to require physical meetings from 7 May, despite resulting from the expiry of the lockdown measure, would cause problems due to the need for physical distancing and undermine democratic accou
Court rules remote meetings cannot continue after May 7
The High Court has ruled today that from May 7, council meetings in England must take place in person – dashing hopes that remote meetings would be able to continue after the coronavirus restrictions which allow them lapse.
The case brought by The Association of Democratic Services Officers, Lawyers in Local Government and Hertfordshire CC concerned whether councils already have the powers needed to hold online meetings through flexibility in current laws which date back to 1972. It received the backing of communities secretary Robert Jenrick.
The judgement by Dame Victoria Sharp, President of the Queen s Bench Division, and Mr Justice Chamberlain concluded: “The Secretary of State was correct in November 2016 and July 2019 to say that primary legislation would be required to allow local authority meetings under the 1972 Act to take place remotely. In our view, once the flexibility regulations cease to apply, such mee