FOR years now your local councillors have had their contact details published on the North Lanarkshire Council website but some of them have now voiced concern over the “security implications”. The local authority are legally obliged to maintain a hard-copy register of elected members’ personal details that can be easily accessed by the public by visiting their offices or even by telephone. NLC has for some time now gone further than that and put councillors’ contact information, including photographs of them, online but that has left some of them concerned about potential risks. The Advertiser has seen a council report that says: “There was a discussion on the question of publication of members’ home addresses on the council website, with some concern having been expressed over security implications.” But the same report makes it clear that every councillor’s home address has to be made available to members of the public, continuing: “Such information is accessible by personal visit at the council offices or by telephone. Also, as part of the overall website arrangements, the council’s website has, for some years, contained details including a photograph of each member with supporting information including the appropriate home address.” Since NLC were established in the mid-1990s, there have been two cases where, due to “individual threats to personal security”, the information about councillors on the website has been edited. However, the principal copy of the council’s register, retained in hard copy, must be in an unedited format. The report goes on to say that the legal obligation of the council is to publish the names and addresses of elected members and that that obligation does not extend to including the present level of detail on the website, although past practice has been to that effect. It adds: “The issue that arises is in relation to perceived dangers to general personal security and against issues of openness and transparency. Council practice has in the past tended to favour the latter by publishing addresses on the website. “On the other hand, it has been argued that perceptions of personal security might be so predominant in the current security climate such as to justify the issue of members’ home addresses only on specific and deliberate enquiry to the council rather than publicly and proactively on the website. “The suggestion is offered that the balance of argument lies in favour of transparency, particularly in as much as the Register of Interests requires publication of property details unless there are particular security interests affecting the individual member concerned that justify alteration to or withholding these details in light of those particular circumstances.” After investigating the issue, the council decided last week to retain the current arrangements for obtaining councillors’ information, including home addresses on the council website. | 
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