When we moved into our house, there was a shed in the garden. Its timbers were rotten, the floor had long since disappeared into the ground, there was no door, the window had fallen out and various creatures had moved in.

I decided to rebuild it out of a material that has been used around the world for hundreds of years, but is less commonly seen in modern buildings: straw bales. A year later, and the “work shed” is now nearly finished.

As sustainability assessment lead at Sheffield University’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, I wanted to make sure my garden office had the lowest possible embodied carbon (a term used to describe the amount of carbon contained, or “embodied” in the materials used to make a product), and low energy use once it was up and running.

That meant the office would need to be very well insulated to avoid using lots of energy to heat it, and made of materials with low carbon content.

Due to its structure, straw is a fantastic insulating material. It’s also cheap, easy to work with, and since the straw absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows, straw buildings act as carbon stores. If we use this in a building, the carbon remains stored for the lifetime of the building, and can even be returned to the soil at the end of life.

My first real involvement with straw building was through the design of a low carbon cold room in Kenya, working with energy efficiency experts from the Energy Saving Trust and Solar Cooling Engineering, and architects from Switzerland and Kenya. A cold room is an easy-to-build and cheap alternative to a large fridge, enabling farmers in developing countries to store produce at a market, improving incomes and reducing food waste.

This cold room is now operating at Homa Bay market on the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya. It has cement-free foundations, solar panels and batteries, water storage, low energy cooling units, a timber structure and straw bale walls. The project showed me that straw bale structures can provide good insulation without the environmental impact of expanded polystyrene.

Natural materials like mud, earth and dung, as well as fibrous materials such as straw were used to build homes for centuries.

Straw bale housing history

Straw in bale form has been used for buildings since the 1800s. After the invention of mechanical baler in the US, straw bales were used to construct homes in places where timber and stone were hard to find.

Some of these early buildings still exist, but most straw bale houses in the US were built since the 1970s. These buildings offer warm comfortable homes and were the inspiration for a new wave of UK straw bale builders in the 1990s.

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Straw works well for single or two-storey buildings, but requires careful design to avoid water leaking into it. Provided the bale buildings are protected from rain splash at the bottom and have an overhanging roof at the top, water isn’t really a problem. Fire requires oxygen and fuel, so a compressed straw bale is fire resistant, and straw bale buildings have met all fire, planning, and building regulations, and even achieved Passivhaus – extremely high standards of insulation, thermal performance and energy use.

My new garden office has 40cm thick walls and double glazed windows, it’s clad on the outside with reclaimed timber (some of which came from the original shed) and the roof, windows, doors and underfloor insulation are all secondhand. The final step is cladding the inside.

Here I’ve adopted another traditional building practice and used cob. Cob is a mixture of clay, water, sand and chopped straw. After digging the clay from our garden and mixing it, I’ve applied the cob by hand, via an incredibly messy but very satisfying process.

I know that the lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of my shed will be about 20 tonnes lower than they would have been if I had used expanded foam insulation and plasterboard.

People who live in straw bale houses talk about how the irregular shape and natural materials of straw bale buildings also have a positive impact on them, and say that buildings like my shed create a connection with the builder particular to the use of natural materials.

This concept, known as biophilic design, is challenging to quantify but I look forward to finding how it feels to sit inside it.

Ukraine is gathering support from European governments to oppose FIFA’s moves to end Russia’s ban from international football.

Ukrainian sports minister Matvii Bidnyi told Sky News that allowing Russia back into World Cups would be legitimising Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

European football leaders are gathering for their annual congress in Brussels today, four years after booting out Russian teams at the start of the all-out war on Ukraine.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is set to attend the UEFA Congress, a week after telling Sky News: “This ban has not achieved anything, it has just created more frustration and hatred.”

Responding to the football boss, Mr Bidnyi said: “It’s a very strange position… nothing changed. This condemnation of all of the world, of the sports community, is very important for international pressure on the aggressor.”

While stopping Russia playing at World Cups is a symbol of the country’s isolation and pariah status, it has not ended the conflict and killing.

“If we start to make our policy softer… what sign do you make for the world?” Mr Bidnyi said.

“The ban, it’s an important part of international efforts to stop the aggressor… it’s a crime and you want to justify, you want to legitimise this crime.”

Mr Bidnyi wants a statement opposing football sanctions on Russia being lifted – as was secured last year from 28 European governments, including the UK, calling on the Paralympics to restore their ban.

‘Irresponsible and infantile’

“I think we are close to it,” he told Sky News. “And I would think it would (have) a big resonance.”

The Ukrainian government would welcome a first visit to the country by Mr Infantino since the war started.

“His actions look irresponsible and infantile,” Mr Bidnyi said, citing children being killed playing football or seriously injured after Russian strikes.

Read more from Sky News:
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Paralympics in dispute with UK

The ban was imposed because European rivals were refusing to play Russian teams or host their matches on neutral integrity – as FIFA and UEFA came under pressure from politicians to apply sporting sanctions.

Within FIFA there is discussion about why they should have to cut ties with Russia when governments advocating for the ban on teams still allow trading with the country with non-sanctioned products.

“It’s wrong, but we can see now it’s become less and less,” Mr Bidnyi said.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy last week criticised the International Olympic Committee and FIFA for moving towards restoring Russian teams, arguing “if anything the situation in Ukraine has got worse” since the original bans were imposed.

LONDON (AP) — Keir Starmer fights another day.

After indirect fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files sparked a dramatic day of crisis that threatened to topple him, the U.K. prime minister was saved by a pugnacious fightback and hesitation among his rivals inside the governing Labour Party about the consequences of a leadership coup.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said Tuesday that Labour lawmakers had “looked over the precipice … and they didn’t like what they saw.”

“And they thought the right thing was to unite behind Keir,” Miliband told the BBC.

He might have added: For now.

Mandelson blowback

Starmer’s authority over his center-left party has been battered by aftershocks from the publication of files related to Epstein — a man he never met and whose sexual misconduct hasn’t implicated him.

But it was Starmer’s decision to appoint veteran Labour politician Peter Mandelson, a friend of Epstein, as U.K. ambassador to Washington in 2024 that has led many to question the leader’s judgment and call for his resignation.

Starmer has apologized, saying Mandelson had lied about the extent of his ties to the convicted sex offender. And he vowed to fight for his job.

“I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country,” Starmer said Tuesday as he visited a community center in southern England. “I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for and I will never walk away from the country that I love.”

Starmer’s risky decision to appoint Mandelson – who brought extensive contacts and trade expertise but a history of questionable ethical judgment – backfired when emails were published in September showing that Mandelson had maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.

Starmer fired Mandelson, but a new trove of Epstein files released last month by the U.S. government contained more revelations. Mandelson is now facing a police investigation for potential misconduct in public office over documents suggesting that he passed sensitive government information to Epstein. He’s not accused of any sexual offenses.

Simmering discontent

The Mandelson scandal may be the final straw that finishes Starmer’s premiership. But it follows discontent that has built since he led Labour to a landslide election victory 19 months ago.

Some of Starmer’s problems stem from a turbulent world and a gloomy economic backdrop. He has won praise for rallying international support for Ukraine and persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a trade deal easing tariffs on U.K. goods. But at home, he has struggled to bring down inflation, boost economic growth and ease the cost of living.

Despite a huge parliamentary majority that should allow the government easily to implement its plans, Starmer has been forced to make multiple U-turns on contentious policies including welfare cuts and mandatory digital ID cards.

Starmer has been through two chiefs of staff, four directors of communications and multiple lower-level staff changes in Downing Street. The prime minister’s powerful chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned Sunday over the decision to appoint Mandelson. Communications director Tim Allan left the next day.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar then held a news conference on Monday and called for Starmer to resign. If other senior party figures had followed, the pressure would have been impossible for Starmer to resist.

But none did. Instead, Starmer’s Cabinet and parliamentary colleagues posted apparently choreographed messages of support. They included former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, considered the two most likely challengers for the top job.

Then, came a highly charged meeting with Labour members of Parliament, where Starmer impressed many with his sense of resolve. Lawmakers in the room said that the mood, initially skeptical, became supportive.

“It was clear he was up for the fight,” said Chris Curtis, one of more than 200 Labour lawmakers elected in the 2024 Starmer landslide.

Temporary reprieve

Starmer appears to have more political lives than Larry the cat, who has outlasted five prime ministers during 15 years as “chief mouser” in Downing Street.

But his respite is likely to be temporary. Many Labour lawmakers remain worried about their reelection chances if the party’s dire opinion poll ratings don’t improve.

Some female party members feel particularly disappointed by Mandelson’s appointment. The Labour leader of Wales, First Minister Eluned Morgan, called revelations about Mandelson “deeply troubling, not least because, once again, the voices of women and girls were ignored.

“That failure must be acknowledged and confronted honestly,” she said, while offering support for Starmer.

Labour faces potential electoral setbacks at a Feb. 26 special election in what was once a party stronghold in northwest England, and in May’s elections for legislatures in Scotland and Wales and local councils in England.

And rivals are still plotting. The Guardian reported that an “Angela for leader” website backing Rayner briefly went live last month by accident. Streeting, whose genial relationship with Mandelson is now a weakness, released messages he’d exchanged with Mandelson before and after the ambassadorial appointment, seemingly in an attempt to show the men weren’t close friends.

The exchanges include implicit criticism of Starmer, with Streeting writing that the government had “No growth strategy at all.”

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said that Starmer had “bought himself some time” and challengers were “keeping their powder dry” for the moment.

“It’s very difficult to image after the shellacking that the party will presumably face in May, him continuing to lead the party much beyond this summer,” Bale said.

Though in British politics, nothing is impossible.

“There are problems with the other candidates,” Bale said. “It’s never an ideal situation for any party to be choosing a prime minister in midterm, and it may be that the Labour Party decides, better the devil you know. I suspect that Keir Starmer will go, but who knows?”

In 18th- and 19th-century Ireland, it was common for courting couples to exchange gifts to mark their developing relationships. Many of these items are familiar gifts today: books, cards, items of clothing, jewellery and sweet treats. Others, however, are less familiar. In fact, some of the gifts exchanged by couples in the past might give many today the dreaded ick – especially those items of the hairier variety.

While you might be familiar with the tradition of mourning hairwork jewellery that was made and worn to remember deceased loved ones in the Victorian era, hairy tokens were traditionally a gift exchanged between couples in love. In my new book, Pious and Promiscuous: Life, Love and Family in Presbyterian Ulster, I explore the tradition of gift-giving among courting couples in Ulster – from hairy tokens to food and clothing. The book reveals for the first time the personal stories that shaped the rituals of Presbyterian family life in 18th- and 19th-century Ulster.

Gift-givers thought deeply about what to gift that special someone. Items exchanged in courtship were carefully chosen because different gifts had different meanings. Whereas shirts were understood to symbolise friendship, items like gloves – which covered the hands and fingers – were associated with marriage.

Those on the receiving end also had to consider whether or not to accept these tokens. Accepting a gift from a would-be suitor indicated that the receiver shared their romantic interest. Refusing a gift communicated the opposite. The tradition of gift-giving could also be used to break off relationships. When a relationship failed, people were expected to return any gifts that they had received.

The most special token that a person could gift was their hair. As a physical piece of a person that would outlast their human life, a lock of hair symbolised immortal love. Locks of hair were generally gifted by women to men and sometimes at the request of their male suitors.

Men might write to their beloveds and request that they enclose a lock of hair in their next letter as a token with which to remember them. Locks of hair could be tied into neat plaits and fashioned with a ribbon, enabling the lock to keep its shape. Hair could also be pressed into jewellery or placed in the back of miniatures.

The recipients of these hairy tokens would engage with them both physically and sensorially. Locks of hair could be rubbed, stroked, sniffed and gazed upon as the recipient thought about the person who had sent it. Given their size, these little hairy tokens could also be secreted inside of clothes and worn next to the heart, or placed under a pillow and slept upon, enabling the recipient to dream of its hairy bestower.

A hairy fetish

Some people appear to have had a real appetite, perhaps even a fetish, for hairy gifts and tokens. Robert James Tennent (1803–80), a middle-class man who came of age in 19th-century Belfast, is one such example. Catalogued among his papers at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast, is an extraordinary archive of hairy treasures, each seemingly representing a woman with whom he had some sort of romantic connection.

What makes Tennent’s collection so intriguing is its size. It contains 14 locks of hair, each wrapped individually in a small handmade envelope. At one time the collection may have been even larger. Among the items is an envelope, now empty, bearing the label “Hair”, which possibly held a lock of hair that has since been lost.

The hair itself varies dramatically in colour, condition and care: wisps of fine blonde hair; neatly tied plaits of brown hair, fashioned with pink string; and unshapen masses of dark hair streaked with grey. The collection also contains a broken ring.

In 2022, I published a paper on Tennent’s hairy treasures in which I theorised that he kept and curated the collection as a trophy cabinet of his past romantic (and sexual) adventures. I argued that the collection served the purpose of a handmade and homemade pornographic archive that Tennent could revisit to transport himself back to pleasured memories and experiences.

Evidence for this view is inscribed in the collection itself. Twelve of the locks are labelled, telling us the name of the woman to whom the hair belonged. We can identify ten women in total. Eleven of the locks are also dated, recording the day, month and year that they were received by Tennent. The collection was assembled between 1818 and 1827, when Tennent was between 15 and 24 years of age.

Tennent’s archiving efforts betray his philandering lifestyle when a younger, unmarried man. There is a considerable overlap in the dates that the different locks of hair were collected. In fact, at least two locks of hair were received into his collection at the same time that Tennent was courting his future wife, Eliza McCracken. The pair were involved in a rather bumpy courtship from 1826, eventually marrying in 1830.

Whereas item nine in the collection labelled “Hair of Lucretia Belfast” is dated December 13 1826, item 15, belonging to Ellen Lepper, is dated June 26 1827. A lock of McCracken’s hair is also included in Tennent’s collection; a partly unrolled plait of brown hair bears the label: “Eliza, Where is the Bosom friend dearer than all.”

That Tennent returned to these tokens to revisit his bachelorhood is suggested by the physical state of some of the items too. A lock of hair attributed to Miss Catharine Louise Lawless (dated November 10/11 1820), may have once been tied into a neat little plait. It is likely that the plait has come undone overtime due to excessive touch.

So, if you find yourself stumped, browsing the shelves this Valentine’s Day for the perfect gift for your other half, perhaps the answer lies atop of your head. Hairy tokens might not suit everyone’s taste today, but they remind us that love and how we express it has always been intensely personal.

From locks of hair twisted into plaits and encased in jewellery to chocolate hearts and handwritten love notes, the tokens we give carry meaning and memory. Love and affection, then as now, is an expression of our intimate sides and can occasionally be a little hairy.

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The retail chain, which has been in Darlington since August 1922, will close in April 2026. No exact date has yet been announced.

It was reported last month that closing down signs appeared on windows of the store, with items now 20% off full price (exclusions apply).

The chain announced on Friday, January 30 it would be closing, after staff were told earlier in the week.

Darlington Borough Council previously said the announcement was “disappointing” for town centre shoppers.

It is the second time the retailer has announced the closure of the town centre store, after previously publicising its intention to close in 2024, before the building was purchased by a new owner. 

The store will close in April 2026 (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

Store bosses later signed a deal in March 2025 to extend House of Fraser’s stay in the town centre by a further 12 months.

The news of the store’s closure came three months after plans were approved to convert the former Binns store, on High Row, into six separate units.

Last month, residents and shoppers said the closure will “rip the heart out” of Darlington.

Anne Weatherall, an 88-year-old Richmond resident said she was “sad” about the news.

“I’m old and I remember it as Binns. I think it’s sad when everything is closing and going online,” she said.

Woodham resident Steve Poad, a former retail worker, was worried about what it could mean for the town too.

Steve, 70, said: “It’s a real shame. Without the building Darlington is going to be dead.”I think Darlington will lose its character.”

House of Fraser has been contacted for comment.

Miller Homes will build their new Maplebrook development at a site on Meikle Earnock Road

A 7.5-acre site in Hamilton is to be developed for housing, with 64 new properties to be constructed and the first residents set to move in at the end of the year.

Miller Homes has announced its acquisition of the site at Meikle Earnock Road for its new Maplebrook development, which will consist of three- to five-bedroomed properties and is due to be launched this summer with a showhome then opening in autumn.

The company says it marks 25 years of building in the town, following previous developments including Highstonehall Park and nearby Highstonehall which were both completed in 2025, and described the latest project as a “significant milestone”.

Maplebrook is described as providing energy-efficient homes, with five house types including terraced, semi-detached and detached.

The company says the new Hamilton site “reflects Miller Homes’ long-standing presence and commitment to the area”, adding: “Over the past quarter-century, Miller Homes has helped create thriving communities across the region, and the team is excited to bring forward a new neighbourhood as part of its continued investment in South Lanarkshire.”

Regional operations director Andrew McArthur visited the site, in a growing residential part of the town, to mark the acquisition announcement; with the company saying the first properties are scheduled for completion in November.

READ MORE: Hamilton pupils’ artwork welcomes visitors to housing developmentREAD MORE: Former Lanark Grammar building being redeveloped into flats

He said: “As we mark 25 years of building in the area, we are delighted to be bringing forward our next development in Hamilton.

“With demand for energy-efficient family housing remaining strong, we will maintain our focus on identifying and investing in land opportunities that support the area’s expansion and align with our regional growth strategy.

“The acquisition of Maplebrook further strengthens our land position in the west of Scotland, and this latest purchase will enable us to continue delivering the new communities that South Lanarkshire requires.”

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The Prince of Wales has been asked to raise the case of a Manchester man detained in Saudi Arabia during his first official trip to the country.

In a letter, exclusively shared with Sky News, Amnesty International has written to Prince William sharing the plight of Ahmed al-Doush.

The father of four, and senior banking analyst for Bank of America, was returning from a holiday in Saudi with his wife and children in 2024 when he was arrested for past social media posts and his alleged association with a Saudi critic in exile, which he denies.

He was initially sentenced to ten years in prison now reduced to eight.

Sky News approached the Saudi embassy for comment but received no response.

Felix Jakens, head of campaigns for Amnesty, told us: “It was unsurprising the UK government and our economy and society are moving much closer to Saudi Arabia, so we would expect to see a royal visit at some point.

“Obviously, what we as a human rights organisation want to do is make sure that human rights are part of that conversation…

“Obviously, we wouldn’t be expecting him (Prince William) to make big public statements about human rights in Saudi Arabia, but we know that some of these issues are close to his and his wife’s heart, so we’d just be asking him whether, in private, he’d be willing to raise the case of Ahmed.”

Talking about the impact on the al-Doush family, Haydee Dijkstal, Mr al-Doush’s legal representative, said: “His wife has spoken about the core role that Ahmed had in their family, not only as a provider, as the main provider for the family, but as a loving father.

“And his absence has been very much missed by his wife and children, and has had a serious impact on them.

“And this in addition to the most recent concerns about the fact that Ahmed’s health and well-being, and the recent fear about his mental health, his mental well-being as well, have led his wife to appeal directly to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.”

We understand his case has been raised by the UK with Saudi authorities.

The Foreign Office told Sky News: “We are supporting a British man who is detained in Saudia Arabia and are in contact with his family and the local authorities.”

This visit was always going to have its political sensitivities.

Kensington Palace wouldn’t comment on the letter from Amnesty, but talking more widely about Prince William’s three-day visit, a royal source said: “Prince William didn’t blink [when asked to go].

“He knows this is an important part of his global role for UK PLC.”

Prince William spent his first night in Saudi with his royal counterpart Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia; the man credited with having a more open and more modern vision for Saudi, albeit one that some would suggest hasn’t been wide-reaching enough in the political arena.

But the first full day of engagements for William will be a display of how the country has liberalised and changed its focus, from meeting women’s football teams, talking about their energy transition away from a dependence on oil and taking part in an e-gaming competition, another part of how Saudi’s economy is diversifying, and trying to draw in a global tourism audience.

William is also tasked with trying to maintain the attention on the significance of the trip after statements were released yesterday both on his behalf and from Buckingham Palace about the Epstein files and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s association with the convicted paedophile.

Andrew denies any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Swedish is a vibrant language spoken by about 10 million people, mostly in Sweden and Finland. But Swedish young people are often proficient in English, too.

Sweden consistently ranks very high in English proficiency comparisons, with young people in Sweden speaking such good English that other countries are eyeing them with envy.

Although English has no official status in Sweden, proficiency in English is a formal requirement to progress in education, and often for employment and social activity as well. The Swedish national curriculum points out that “the English language surrounds us in our daily lives and is used in areas as diverse as politics, education and economics”.

Like many national languages in Europe, Swedish is increasingly sharing its space with English. Public spaces have long been papered with signs and advertising in English, or both Swedish and English.

There is a lack of interest in learning other foreign languages among Swedish young people: English is thought to be enough.

English is the default language (lingua franca) for Swedish speakers in any situation where someone is thought not to be fully proficient in Swedish, both in international travel and at home in Sweden when talking to visitors or migrants. In fact, migrants report finding it hard to get Swedes to speak Swedish with them.

Young Swedes seamlessly switch to English and increasingly speak English together. Many young people envision a life outside Sweden and see English as the language of their future.

English at school and beyond

In Swedish secondary schools, English language teaching aspires to help students speak English with confidence. English communication skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – are taught and assessed, with national testing beginning in year six (age 12). The emphasis is on implicit language knowledge (being able to use the language) rather than explicit language knowledge (knowing about the language).

Accurate language production is not an explicit aim in the curriculum. Consequently, young people, though often orally proficient due to widespread exposure to English, may lack knowledge of grammar and conventions, allowing them to communicate effectively but not always with full accuracy.

This potential lack of accuracy does not stop young Swedes from gravitating towards English. Outside of the classroom, Swedish students engage with English more extensively than many of their peers abroad. English retains significant appeal due to its prominence in media and advertising, the popularity of British and American culture, and the prevalence of Swedish music artists using English in songwriting.

What’s more, many young people are inclined to use English on social media platforms, for swearing, and in slang expressions. Much of the language young people in Sweden encounter online is English. Youth media consumption in Sweden, from Netflix to YouTube, from TikTok to Snapchat, is primarily in English.

Many Swedish influencers generate content in English. Gaming in Sweden has always been overwhelmingly in English.

Although schools provide exposure to formal language aspects and a chance to receive some corrective feedback, students will usually simultaneously be acquiring English informally outside the classroom.

This English language use is based on students’ personal interests, such as gaming, sports, pop music and reading. The students are not actively aiming to develop their English, but pick up vocabulary, pronunciation and structure while doing something that interests them.

Willingness to use English is not the same thing as a solid knowledge of the language. Most students benefit from combining classroom learning with out-of-school exposure to fully develop their English proficiency. Ideally, teachers should acknowledge and integrate this language use into their instruction.

The new upper secondary English syllabus reflects this by emphasising the value of raising students’ awareness of how language can be learned beyond school.

What goes on in schools is only a small part of how young people learn English in Sweden. Formal instruction and informal language use offer much more together than separately.

Rowallane DUP councillor Callum Bowsie said: “In relation to senior officers’ register of interests, I think the council is making this more difficult than it needs to be.”

A DUP councillor has raised transparency concerns over council officers’ conflict of interests in decision making.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council’s recent audit committee was told that the local authority would not publish management staff’s details on its website.

In a report to the chamber, the Information Commissioner’s Office is said to advise that senior officers’ disclosure was a matter for consideration on the UK’s GDPR.

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Rowallane DUP councillor Callum Bowsie said: “In relation to senior officers’ register of interests, I think the council is making this more difficult than it needs to be.

“The issue with the report is that it is stated that senior officers’ register of interests is not put on the council website based on ICO guidance. Having asked for sight of that guidance we now know that the guidance didn’t exist as I suspected.

“The advice now states that senior officers’ interest should be published in line with data protection. But, senior management is saying that the entirety of that register cannot be published because of data protection.

“Once again that is not what is in the guidance.”

During council committees senior management provide reports to the councillors in order to make decisions including on policy and funding.

However, at times senior officers are given ‘delegated authority’, which means they have the power to make decisions without the need for elected members.

Councillor Bowsie added: “I have been in touch with the ICO office and they have confirmed to me that they expect information in relation to senior officers’ declaration of interests to be published.

“It also states you should publicise which public registers you hold and how the information in them is made known to the public.

“I have requested sight of the register for senior officers and to date my right to view that has even under a freedom of information request, been rejected, because the register is ‘commercially sensitive’.

“The public is entitled to know at the very least if the commercial interests of those within our council who have delegated authority to make decisions without council approval. It is the antithesis of transparency that senior officers’ declaration of interest cannot be published.

“The fact they are not is concealment of interests. What use is a register of interest if nobody can check it for any potential conflict of interest. Surely deciding not to share interests is a conflict of interest in itself.”

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Currently all councillors in Northern Ireland must declare their interests on a register including employment and membership of any organisations, which is then published on local authority websites.

Senior management made up of the CEO and four directors do not have their interest published.

A council legal adviser responded: “The clarification you sought related to declaration of interests for senior officers. It is important to remember they are not elected members and the requirement for elected members is different to employees who have protection of GDPR.

“Officers make declarations of interest and are properly recorded, but there is no lawful requirement to say they must be published on a website

“If we are aware of any disclosure that has not been made it should be properly investigated.”

Councillor Bowsie said: “GDPR means you remove things like personal addresses, trade unions and health status; it doesn’t mean you block an entire register.

“The council’s own policy we agreed at the last audit committee states, the council publishes declarations of interest from councillors and senior officers, but not for remaining staff.

“This is in compliance to ICO guidance. So, you do or you don’t publish declaration of interests for senior officers on the website.

“The policy says you do, but I’m now being told you don’t. What is being said is completely inconsistent.

“I wonder do any of the other parties have concerns about declarations of interest being made public?”

No other members of the committee raised any concerns.

Independent chair Brona Slevin advised Councillor Bowsie to take the matter up with senior management outside of the audit chamber.

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