EXCLUSIVE: No Checks on Whether Councillors Banned As Directors By Southampton City Council

 

We exclusively reported success in Andrew Pope's campaign to ensure that Southampton City Council conducted criminal records checks on councillors.

However, it was also confirmed during our questions to Council officers, that only those elected in May 2026 would be subject to DBS (Disclosures and Barring Service) checks.

We have confirmed with a spokesperson for the Council that those councillors already elected will not be DBS checked any time soon.

So TWO-THIRDS of councillors will STILL HAVE NO CHECKS.

What do you think of that? 

AND now we have confirmed directly with that spokesperson that no councillors are checked to see if they have been banned as company directors. 

Anti-corruption candidate for Redbridge ward Andrew Pope says: 

Andrew Pope

 "I was pleased to see the partial u-turn on DBS checks, after years with councillors not being subject to criminal records checks.

But there are too many holes in checks of Southampton councillors.

It's worrying, because councillors deal with all sorts of people, if they are doing their job properly.

And they make decisions over hundreds of millions of pounds of public money.

Don't you think they should all - all 51 councillors - have DBS checks with regular updates?

Don't you think they should have checks to see if they are banned as company directors?

I will continue my anti-corruption campaigning.

If elected, I will have more powers to get answers and bring accountability to the party politicians and those in the parties and the Council who want to cover them up, instead of bringing them to justice."

 

 

 

VICTORY: Andrew Pope Wins Campaign for Southampton Councillors To Be Subjected to DBS Checks

 

Andrew Pope

In July 2024, Andrew Pope began a campaign to make sure that all councillors receive DBS checks. He submitted a Freedom of Information request asking what the Council were doing when assessing councillors. They were not being done any more. So Andrew began the process of campaigning for councillors to have to have the DBS check.

Around 18 months later, the Council Governance Committee agreed. Andrew says:

"When I was first elected, I received a DBS check. But then it did not seem to be happening to new councillors that were then elected.

I made enquiries with the Head of Legal. 

In 2024, I asked for DBS checks to be done again. Now they are."