Guest
Julie King
Partner
Norfolk Parish Training and Support
Unlock the Power of the Big Yellow Book
Meet the guest
Watch
Get the Video and Slides
Show notes
This one's different. The episode opens with a heads-up from John: don't listen to this in the car or walking the dog — it's a hands-on workshop, and you'll need the 14th edition of Arnold-Baker on Local Council Administration (the Big Yellow Book, the Local Council Bible, the CAB, whatever you call it) sitting open in front of you. Julie King, Partner at Norfolk Parish Training and Support, walks listeners through the book they've all got on the shelf but maybe never quite figured out how to navigate.
Julie starts with what the book actually is — a brief history of Charles Arnold-Baker (MI6 officer turned barrister turned head of what's now NALC), Paul Claydon, and current author Roger Taylor. Then the structure: Part 1 (England & Wales) chapters 1–33, Part 2 (Wales only) chapters 34–36, Appendix 1 (Statutes), Appendix 2 (Statutory Instruments), the Index. Out come the post-it notes to mark up Chapter 1, the start of the 1972 Local Government Act on page 413, and Schedule 12 on page 505 — the bits everyone goes back to.
Then four worked examples, the same pattern each time — Index → Chapter (legal interpretation) → Statute (the actual legislation). Quorum (7.9 → Schedule 12 paragraph 12: a third or three, whichever is greater, of total membership — not current sitting members). Register of interests (7.12 → Localism Act 2011, Section 29 — yes, it must go on your council website even if it's on the principal authority's site too). Churchyard grass cutting (25.2 / 33.3–5 → 1972 LGA Section 214 — parish councils are burial authorities for this purpose, so yes you can contribute). And the six-month rule for councillor absence (7.13 → Section 85 — and crucially, it's six months from the last meeting attended, not six missed meetings; if you meet quarterly, that's just one miss).
Plus a Q&A pass on whether older editions are still usable (mostly yes; the Procurement Act is where you start to fall foul), how AOB on agendas works (you can list it; you just can't make decisions under it), and a closing reflection on why the proper officer role is impossible without this book. Julie leaves with the message she'd most like listeners to take away: make the Big Yellow Book your friend, not your foe.
Pay-it-forward: Julie answers Beckie Whitehouse's "if kindness was a currency, how would you spend £10" question (sweets for everyone in her household sitting exams) and leaves a new question for Tom Sykes — joining the podcast next on procurement: what piece of legislation would you change, if you could, and why?
Chapters
Questions answered in this episode
Drawn from our conversation with Julie King, Partner at Norfolk Parish Training and Support, walking through the 14th edition of Arnold-Baker on Local Council Administration. The answers below are editorial summaries of the discussion — not verbatim transcripts.
What is the Big Yellow Book, and which edition is current?
The "Big Yellow Book" is *Arnold-Baker on Local Council Administration*, the standard reference for parish and town council clerks in England and Wales. It was originally written by Charles Arnold-Baker (MI6 officer turned barrister turned head of what's now NALC), then maintained by Paul Claydon, and is now in its 14th edition, authored by Roger Taylor of Wellers Law Group. The book pairs Roger Taylor's plain-ish-English legal interpretation in the chapter sections with the actual legislation (statutes and statutory instruments) at the back — which is what makes it more useful for the sector than reading legislation.gov.uk directly.
How do I actually use the Big Yellow Book to look something up?
The pattern that works for almost any question is the same: start in the **index** at the back; it'll point you to a chapter section (e.g. 7.9 for quorum); that section gives the legal interpretation and a footnote pointing to the **statute** (e.g. 1972 Local Government Act, Schedule 12, paragraph 12); then flip to the appendix at the back of the book to read the legislation itself. Index → chapter → statute. Worth marking up the book with post-it notes for the spots you'll keep coming back to — the start of the chapters, the 1972 Local Government Act, and Schedule 12 are the obvious three.
What's the quorum for a parish or town council meeting?
Three, or one-third of the total membership of the local council, whichever is the greater. That's chapter 7.9 in Arnold-Baker, referencing 1972 Local Government Act, Schedule 12, paragraph 12. The key phrase is *total membership*: vacancies don't change the quorum. If your council has 11 seats and one is vacant, the quorum is still calculated against 11.
What's the quorum if my council has 10 councillors?
Four. A third of 10 is 3.33, and since you can't have a third of a councillor walk into the room, you round up. The legislation says *at least* one-third, so 3.33 means you need four bodies in the meeting.
What's the quorum for a parish council committee?
For committees, you follow your standing orders or the terms of reference for that committee — not the Schedule 12 quorum that applies to full council. Practically, the minimum that works is three, because a quorum of two means the chair always has a casting vote and there's no real deliberation to be had.
Does a parish council have to publish its register of interests on its own website?
Yes. Even though the monitoring officer at the principal authority is required to publish each councillor's register of interests on the principal authority's website, the local council *must also* publish it on its own website. That's chapter 7.12 in Arnold-Baker, referencing Localism Act 2011, Section 29. A simple link from your website to the principal authority's published register is fine — you don't need to mirror the full content.
A councillor has changed jobs since they joined — does the register of interests need updating?
Yes, and the responsibility for keeping it up to date sits with the councillor, not the clerk. In practice, plenty of clerks do a once-a-year nudge — sending each councillor a link to what's currently registered for them and asking them to update if anything has changed. It's optional, not a clerk duty, but it heads off the worst case of an out-of-date register sitting on the website unchallenged for years.
Can a parish council contribute toward the cost of cutting the grass in the churchyard?
Yes. The relevant chapters are 25.2 and 33.3 to 33.5 (Chapter 33 has the wonderful title *Powers Relating to the Dead*), and the legislation is 1972 Local Government Act, Section 214 — which explicitly says that a parish council is a burial authority for this purpose, and Section 214(6) allows the council to contribute to the maintenance of an open churchyard. Section 215 adds the broader power for a burial authority to contribute toward the cost of providing or maintaining a cemetery.
What's the six-month rule for councillor absence — six months or six meetings?
Six months, measured from the date of the last meeting they attended — not six missed meetings. If a councillor fails throughout six consecutive months to attend any council, committee, or sub-committee meeting (and the absence hasn't been approved by the council before the six months are up), the seat falls vacant automatically. That's chapter 7.13 in Arnold-Baker, referencing 1972 Local Government Act, Section 85. The subtlety matters most for councils that meet quarterly — missing a single meeting can put a councillor on the edge of the rule.
What are the exceptions to the six-month rule?
There are three. The councillor has a statutory excuse — broadly, military service in war or emergency. The council approved the reason for the absence before the end of the six-month period. Or, during the period, the councillor attended in their capacity as the council's formally appointed representative at another qualifying body, such as a county association of local councils.
Can a parish council have "any other business" on its agenda?
You can put AOB on the agenda, but you can't take a decision under it. The legislation requires the summons sent to councillors to *detail the business to be transacted*, and the courts have agreed that "any other business" doesn't constitute that kind of detail. So AOB can sit there as a slot for raising things, but anything that needs a vote has to be on a future agenda properly listed. In practice, leaving AOB on the agenda creates more temptation than it's worth.
I've got an older edition of the Big Yellow Book — does it matter?
Mostly, no — most of what clerks look up sits in older legislation (the 1972 Local Government Act hasn't changed much) and the book's structure is essentially the same. Where you start to fall foul is recent legislation: the Procurement Act 2023 changes won't be in older editions, and the 2018 UK GDPR / Data Protection Act updates were the previous big gap. The 13th edition is fine for most lookups; just cross-check anything recent against legislation.gov.uk before relying on it.