To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) rights and (b) powers councillors have to access information held by the local authority to which they have been elected. (230411)

A councillor has the same rights to information held by a local authority as a member of the public, under the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, councillors have a right under the Local Government Act 1972 to inspect documents in the local authority’s possession. Exceptions to this right do exist, for instance, information relating to individuals. Finally councillors have a common law right to access any material where this is necessary for them to discharge their duties as a councillor, although a request for such information may be subject to a ‘need to know’ test.