Powers and duties

Legal status of local authorities

Local authorities (LA) are statutory corporations, created by Parliament as single legal entities, as described in Hazel v Hammersmith and Fulham:

‘local authority, although democratically elected and representative of the area, is not a sovereign body and can only do such things as are expressly or impliedly authorised by Parliament’.

There are many such statutory provisions, some providing an overall framework but most charge the authority with carrying out one among many, sometimes competing, functions of a council or local authority for a particular purpose.

Specific statutory powers are granted relating to the LA’s duties in service provision and commissioning which are covered in the adult and children’s social care, education, environmental law, highways, licensing, public procurement and social housing specialist topics. The governance topic generally and this subtopic particularly is concerned with the wider powers and duties that overlay specific statutory duties and form the cornerstone of good governance for a LA.

Central to exercise of good decision making is analysis of the following fundamental questions:

1. •

   is there statutory authority to make this decision?

2. •

   is the decision