Response A1345212

Response to request for information

Response date

18 June 2021

Request

Please provide responses to the following questions relating to:

The collection of party political subscriptions from councillors allowances in:

• 2019-2020
• 2020-2021

1. Does the council collect, from councillors allowances, funds which are then passed to a political party?

2. Please give the reason why the council is collecting, from councillors allowances, funds for a political party

3. Please advise the annual amount collected and paid to each individually named political party

4. Has NI and Tax been deducted before the funds are collected?

5. What is the cost to the council for making these deductions and arranging bank transfers or cheque payments?

6. What bank charges are incurred in transferring the funds or cheque payments?

Response

Does the council collect, from councillors allowances, funds which are then passed to a political party?

The council does not operate an allowance deduction from councillors which we as an authority would operate as a third party payover. However councillors and employees are able to elect to have an amount/percentage of their Net Pay paid directly into a second bank account. This is set against an individual in the payroll system and would automatically generate the transactions on the Salaries payment run. This incurs no separate charges.