Senior Officials – Clerk
The Clerk of a local authority kept the minutes, correspondence and other administrative records and acted as its legal adviser. The functions and responsibilities varied according to the type of local authority. Duties generally included maintaining correspondence on behalf of the local authority, acting as the local authority’s solicitor in the passage of legislation affecting the local authority and related agreements, representing the local authority in legal disputes, authorising public notices, drafting and publishing bye-laws, representing the local authority at joint meetings such as the Convention of Royal, Parliamentary and Police Burghs, maintaining statutory registers such as the register of shops, register of halls & cinemas etc, and property and land transactions.
In the medieval period the town clerk might also be clerk to the kirk session or clerk to one or more of the various trade guilds (Hammermen, Glovers, etc) who had representation on the town council. By the 18th century, town clerks were often solicitors (writers) who maintained private practice while also acting as clerk to the town council and other local authorities.
The Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 required police burgh commissioners to appoint a clerk, to keep records and make these open for inspection without payment of fee. Certified extracts were subject to a fee.[1] The clerk was not permitted to act as ‘Agent or Solicitor’ in the trial of any offence committed within the boundaries, and the same person could not be both clerk and treasurer.[2] Subsequent legislation continued this requirement for town councils. In 1862 the duties included keeping records, providing certified extracts, issuing licences, acting as the named person in any legal action, for or against the commissioners, and for heritable property and maintaining and publishing certified copies of byelaws and recording bonds.[3]
Counties were required to appoint a clerk by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. [4] This made arrangements to ensure the clerks of the bodies which were abolished by the act were not adversely affected: the clerk to the commissioners of supply became the county clerk and the clerks to the county roads trustees and the Justices of the Peace were to remain in office until the individuals resigned or otherwise ceased to hold office at which point their duties transferred to the county clerk. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 required district councils to appoint clerks and enabled county clerks to appoint deputes.[5] The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 required county councils, district councils and town councils to appoint a clerk.[6]
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 amended previous legislation to remove the titles of town clerk, county clerk and district clerk and replaced these roles with the term ‘proper officer’ of the regional, district or islands councils.[7] The legislation did not specify the appointment of a chief executive but by the 1980s, 95% of councils had appointed one, often initially with a background in law and administration but gradually a wider range of professional backgrounds emerged.[8]
Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2021)
Bibliography
Kerley, Richard & Mark Urquhart, Local authority organisation and management in Scotland 1975-1996 (Scottish Office Central Research Unit, 1997)
Pryde, George S., Central and local government in Scotland since 1707 (Historical Association (Great Britain) 1960)
Robertson, David, ‘The Town Clerks of Edinburgh’ in Historical studies in the development of local government services in Edinburgh Series 1 (National Association of Local Government Officers, Edinburgh and District Branch. 1935-36), pp. 5-14
Whyte, W. E., The Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929: a popular exposition of its provisions (Hodge & Co, 1929)
References
[1] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c.46) s.47.
[2] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c.46) s.48-49.
[3] General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict c.101) s.64, s.67.
[4] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.50) s.83.
[5] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V c.25) s.26, s.43.
[6] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI c.43) s.76, s.84, s.94.
[7] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65).
[8] Richard Kerley with Mark Urquhart Local Authority Organisation and management in Scotland, 1975-1996 (Scottish Office Central Research Unit, 1997).