Support for Statutory Officers

A local authority’s statutory officers play a vital role in ensuring the lawful and effective operation of the local authority. They have personal duties to discharge and often need to exercise these when their authorities are experiencing particularly difficult situations or pressure on their resources.

Monitoring officers need to monitor the lawfulness of the actions of their authorities and if necessary comply with their duty under section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, to report to their authorities on unlawfulness or maladministration.

Chief financial officers are responsible under section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972 for the proper administration of their authority’s financial affairs. They need to monitor their authority’s financial management and if necessary comply with their duty under section 114 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 to report to their authority on unlawful expenditure or the inability of the authority to balance its budget.

Our comprehensive knowledge of local government law and our extensive experience of working with local authorities and their officers enables us to provide comprehensive specialist support to statutory officers.

We can assist with:

• Advising on the lawfulness of actions or proposed actions by local authorities
• Advising on the preparation of reports and proposed motions for local authority decisions
• Advising on issues relating to meetings and decision making
• Advising members at local authority meetings
• Assisting statutory officers with responding to Government intervention and working with commissioners