As mayoral and council candidates turn out to canvass, strict rules kick in for civil servants and local government staff
On Thursday 4 May 2017, more than 6.7 million people will be eligible to vote for one of the six new combined local authority mayors in England, and there will also be local government elections in England, Wales and Scotland.
There are strict rules governing civil servants and local government staff in pre-election period, usually known as purdah (a term from the Persian for curtain or veil).
While most of the everyday business of central and local government obviously continues in the run-up to the elections, all staff must be scrupulous in the pre-election period to ensure that public resources are not used for party political purposes and not to undertake any activity that could call into question their political impartiality. The rules applies to all communications, including social media.
When does purdah kick in ahead of the May election?
The rules are different for staff in central government and local government. Each local authority sets its own purdah rules and guidance, but these must be in place by Monday 27 March at the latest.
For civil servants, purdah begins on 13 April. The Cabinet Office will publish its guidance to this year’s purdah period. It’s likely to be similar to the guidance in 2013.
Is purdah a pain or a pleasure?
For many civil servants and local government staff, purdah can be a welcome opportunity for a breathing space while ministers and local politicians or, this May, mayoral candidates, are out on the stump, canvassing and drumming up support.
It’s a double-edged sword: some favoured projects will get kicked into the long grass, never to see the light of day again. Others may get a bit of nurturing.
Usually, purdah is fairly uncontroversial. But in the run-up to the UK referendum on leaving the EU, even this became politically charged, with some Eurosceptic Tory politicians arguing, successfully, that the government should not change the purdah rules. David Cameron’s government lost by 27 votes to the MPs who argued that Downing Street was trying to unduly influence the result in favour of staying in the EU.
