Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Local authority definition

What does Local authority mean? In legal practice, a local authority is the elected council that provides local government for a defined area, exercising statutory functions including planning, housing, social care, education, highways, environmental health, licensing, and the collection of council tax or rates. The expression appears widely in legislation and case law; its precise scope is set by the relevant statute. England: county councils and district councils (including metropolitan boroughs), unitary authorities, London Boroughs and the Common Council of the City of London; parish and town councils are local authorities at the most local tier. Wales: unitary county and county borough councils. Scotland: the...

Appointment and dismissal of local authority statutory officers: standing orders, decision-making roles, JNC/Green Book terms and pay policy statements (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Local Government expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note addresses the supplementary employment obligations specific to local government regarding the recruitment and removal of statutory post-holders, including the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for Local authority Chief Officers terms, green book provisions, occupation-specific conditions of service, and authorities’ rules on employment procedures. It sets out the varying rules that apply to different categories of officers. It further outlines the part played by leaders or elected mayors and the cabinet under executive arrangements, together with the Chief Executive, in these processes as applicable.

Discussion of employment issues in local government fall into three areas:

routine employment law issues, such as those concerning Discrimination, fair or Unfair dismissal (including redundancy), TUPE, etc
contractual obligations, which necessitate consultation with national conditions of service except where local agreements have been made

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Philip McCourt

Bevan Brittan LLP

Philip joined Top 100 law firm Bevan Brittan in 2022 following a distinguished career in local government. He is qualified as both a solicitor and chartered secretary and began his local government career in 1988. He was first appointed as a monitoring officer, head of legal services and member of an authority’s senior management team in 2000.He has since gone on to work for and on behalf of a number of local authorities and has additionally led on a number of projects for wider local government, such as designing the ethical governance toolkit for the Local Government Association and in leading on a number of best practice documents, including the code of corporate governance for interests in local authority companies and the model member planning member code, which was described by the UK Supreme Court in 2017 as providing sound practical...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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