Local government legal departments face a massive challenge from January 2005 when individual members of the public will, for the first time, be allowed to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the incoming president of the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors (ACSeS) has said.

Gifty Edila, director of law and administration at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, told the Gazette: 'We will be managing this and responding to requests for access. Councils have a vast amount of information and we will be supporting other services to be ready to open up.'


Ms Edila added that members of the association are already grappling with a raft of new legislation introduced in the past three years.


Edila: challenge of comittees

Developments to have had a major impact include the introduction in 2002 of a code of conduct for councillors and the launch of the Standards Board for England watchdog. The regime can lead to in-house legal departments having to investigate their own politicians, Ms Edila said, making it difficult to maintain a working relationship whatever the outcome of that inquiry.

Ms Edila, who has previously chaired ACSeS's best value procurement committee, added that recently adopted governance models introduced by the Local Government Act 2000 - effective from 2001 - have also added to the workload.


The Act sets out three principal types of leadership structure for councils to adopt, with the aim of having a structure that the local community wants.


Ms Edila, who will hold the presidency for a year, said: 'The most challenging parts are the new overview and scrutiny committees - they are supposed to be advocates for the community, so that the chosen structure is following the policies and providing the services that the community wants.'


ACSeS has around 500 members, drawn from local government heads of legal services, and democratic services and monitoring officers.