AQW 50313/11-16

Mr Stewart Dickson
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 03/11/2015
Answered On Date: 20/11/2015
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of the Environment for his assessment of the legality of councils paying a Councillor's allowances directly to a third party.

Answer:

The legislation clearly states that councillor allowances are payable by councils directly to councillors. This is contained in Part 3 of the Local Government Finance Act (NI) 2011 and in the Local Government (Payments to Councillors) Regulations (NI) 2012.

In light of the recent court proceedings, my officials wrote to all district council chief executives to remind them of their duty under this legislation. However the legislation is silent on which bank accounts councillors' allowances must be paid into and councils do not have an investigative power to allow enquiries; such as that available to the Assembly. This is a subject that I will discuss with council Chief Executives to ascertain if such a legislative power is necessary and would be of benefit.