Register of Interests
Employees need to identify situations where their personal interests may conflict with their public duty or the interests of the County Council. It is also important that the public can be confident that decisions of whatever nature are made for good and proper reasons and are not influenced inappropriately by the interests of individual employees, their relatives or friends. Each department maintains a register to record such interests.
A conflict of interest may arise where an employee, their spouse or partner:
- has a “substantial” shareholding in a company which is contracted to work for the County Council;
- runs a business or is employed by a company or voluntary sector organisation that is engaged to work for the County Council; or
- belongs to a local action group or organisation which is campaigning against something the Council is doing or proposing to do, or seeking to influence the County Council in some way.
In all these sorts of situations there is a potential conflict of interest and employees must notify their line manager in writing. The line manager will then pass that information to the Chief Officer who will enter it into the Register of Interests.
Some employees are involved in tendering processes which lead to contracts being let on behalf of the County Council, or they may be involved in supervising contractors. If employees, their friends or relatives have an interest in the company or body which is submitting a tender or carrying out work on behalf of the County Council, they must declare it to their manager. The manager must then assess the nature of that interest and decide whether any action should be taken to distance the employee from that process and if appropriate put in safeguards to protect both the Council’s position and the employee’s position.
More Information
Page Last Updated: 23 October 2009
