Categories of PoRPs
Specified posts
Specified posts are automatically subject to restrictions on political activity. There is no right to appeal. These posts are:
- chief executive as head of paid service
- statutory chief officers, for example, director of children's services
- non-statutory chief officers, for example, executive directors or chief fire officer. They mostly report directly or are directly accountable to the head of paid service
- deputy chief officers, for example, assistant directors and assistant chief executives reporting directly to the chief executive or executive directors
- monitoring officer
- chief finance officer
- posts to whom the council has delegated any of its powers to make decisions
- assistants to political parties
Sensitive posts
A sensitive post is one which involves giving advice (not factual information) regularly to:
- the executive or any executive committee
- the full council or a committee, sub-committee
- a joint committee on which the council is represented
- any member of the executive who is also a member of the council
Any employee who regularly speaks to journalists or broadcasters on our behalf is also considered to hold a sensitive post.
These postholders may appeal to the chief executive to be exempted from the list. An appeal might be because we have wrongly applied the criteria.
Exempted posts
Teachers, headteachers and lecturers are exempt from political restrictions.