Accessible council meetings

That this House is concerned that the emergency regulations that allowed councils to conduct meetings remotely between 2 April 2020 and 7 May 2021, and which enabled disabled people and people with caring responsibilities to fully and fairly participate, are no longer in place; notes the Local Government Association's (LGA) call to reinstate hybrid meetings and their statement that this kind of flexibility is vital in attracting a wider range of people to stand as local election candidates; further notes the findings from the LGA in June 2022 that 72 per cent of councillors surveyed felt a hybrid model could attract more ethnic minority people, younger people and women to stand in local elections; is alarmed by the LGA council survey carried out between October and November 2021, which found that returning exclusively to in-person meetings had resulted in 72 per cent of councils seeing a drop in councillor attendance at statutory meetings and a 73 per cent drop in public attendance; welcomes the findings from a 2021 YouGov survey that found that 60 per cent of people said, given a choice, they would prefer to work remotely at least some of the time and research from the International Energy Agency that suggests remote working can lead to a reduction in climate emissions; and calls on the Government to make democracy more accessible this Disability Pride Month by making permanent the express provision for hybrid council meetings.