10 April 2025This year’s Practitioners’ Guide has a few changes which are detailed here, including a requirement for every authority to have a generic email account hosted on an authority owned domain, for example [email protected] or [email protected]. A guide to understanding and preparing to move to a .gov.uk domain can be found here.
The initial text in the 2025 Practitioners’ Guide contained an error. Following discussion between the Smaller Authorities’ Proper Practices Panel (SAPPP, former JPAG) and the government advisors who provided the relevant wording for the 2025 guide, SAPPP has issued an addendum to the guide with a revised wording for para 5.124. This is to make it absolutely clear to local councils and their auditors that there is no requirement for parish councils (including town/community councils) and parish meetings to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO). This is the position in law, as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018.
SLCC members can access the 2025 guide as a free download including this revision here.
