Personal Interests

You must declare to your line manager, using our on-line Declaration of Interests process, any financial and non-financial interests that you consider could bring about conflict with the Authority’s interests.

If anyone could assume that you were doing anything in your role as a Council employee that would benefit yourself or anyone you know in a personal capacity, then you need to be up front about it and record it. If in doubt, ask your manager for advice.

Your line manager in counter signing the declaration is confirming that they are aware of the potential conflict of interest as declared by you and that one of the following applies:

a) The line manager does not consider that the interest has a material effect in relation to your work as an employee with the Council (i.e., it is personal but not prejudicial)

                                                         OR   

b) The line manager will work with you to ensure that an actual conflict of interest will not arise (this may involve re-distributing work when necessary to avoid an interest becoming prejudicial).

If your line manager cannot identify an obvious way to avoid you having a conflict of interest, then this situation must be reported to the Monitoring Officer for advice.

In extreme circumstances, the Council may potentially require employees to relinquish certain responsibilities or interests to remain in the employ of the Council. The Monitoring Officer will keep a record of the advice provided and any decisions taken in this regard.

It is your responsibility to declare any interests in advance where you know of them and as new interests arise, to declare them as soon as possible when you become aware of a potential conflict.

To assist, you will receive an annual reminder. In addition, as part of your appraisal / supervision meetings, your manager should remind you of the need to declare potential conflicts of interest or, if you have made previous declarations, remind you of the need to review and update them. Updated declarations should be submitted via our on-line Declarations of Interest process.

Remember – it is your responsibility to make declarations not your line manager’s.

Membership of other organisations

You must declare to your Head of Service or line manager membership of any organisation not open to the public without formal membership and commitment of allegiance and which has secrecy about its rules, membership, or conduct.