Abuse threats prompt political privacy move

The council says members will be able to choose to have their addresses published if they wish

Safety fears have prompted a council to decide to no longer publish the addresses of elected members.

City of York councillors agreed a recommendation to require them to opt-in to have their home addresses recorded in their register of interests.

The Labour-run authority's deputy leader Pete Kilbane said the safety of members appeared to be more under threat than previously.

The decision followed concerns raised in the city and by the Local Government Association (LGA) about a rise in abuse, intimidation and threats against councillors.

A report produced as part of the LGA's Debate Not Hate campaign stated threats were seen as more serious due to the availability of councillors' addresses online.

Responding to the decision, opposition Liberal Democrat leader Nigel Ayre said the addresses of other properties which councillors have an interest in should not necessarily be kept private.

Conservative group leader Chris Steward said he had no issue with members wanting to keep their addresses private but they should have the option to display them more prominently.

Threats and abuse

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, previous national reviews have called for rules on the publication of councillors' addresses to be changed.

In March 2024, the then local government minister Simon Hoare told councils to look sympathetically at requests to withhold addresses.

Current rules allow information in councillors' declared interests to be classed as sensitive and redacted from public registers.

A council report stated there had historically been very few requests to treat members' interests as sensitive.

But it added there had been a noticeable increase in the number of requests made in recent years and these had been linked to threats and abuse that councillors face.

The decision, made at a meeting last week, will mean home addresses and addresses of other properties that they own, share ownership of, or have an interest in will be withheld by default.

Councillors will be able to opt-in to enable their addresses to be included in their publicly-available register of interests.

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