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Declarations of interest

For the helpdesk team

Declarations of interest

Section titled “Declarations of interest”

Every governor and trustee must declare interests that could conflict with their duties — directorships, family employment with suppliers, financial holdings, pecuniary interests in matters before the board. The Academies Trust Handbook requires the register; this is where you maintain it.

Declarations of interest — the statutory register with public/hidden status and expiry indicators

What’s on a declaration

Section titled “What’s on a declaration”
  • Declarant name + role — who’s declaring, in what capacity.
  • Linked person — optional link to the people register (via person_id). Strongly recommended if the declarant is in the people register, so the row updates with their record.
  • Interest type — pecuniary, business, family, other.
  • Related entity — the company / charity / school where the interest sits.
  • Description — the detail (what the relationship is). This is the agent-only field; for public publication, write the public summary separately.
  • Declared on — when the declaration was made.
  • Expires on — for time-limited interests (e.g. trustee role ending in two years). Drives the renewal reminder.
  • Is active — flag. Inactive declarations remain in the register for the audit trail but are filtered out of “current” views.
  • Is published — flag. Controls visibility on the public surface.
  • Public summary — sanitised description shown publicly. “Spouse employed by IT supplier” rather than naming the supplier or the spouse explicitly.

Workflow

Section titled “Workflow”
  1. Governor declares an interest verbally at a meeting or by email.
  2. Clerk records the row, choosing what to publish. The default is active + not published.
  3. Once cleared for publication (usually at the next meeting), set is_published.
  4. When the role ends or the interest lapses, set is_active = false. Don’t delete.

Renewal reminders

Section titled “Renewal reminders”

Declarations with expires_on set fire a reminder N days before expiry (config-driven, typically 30). The reminder goes to the clerk and the governor.

Gotchas

Section titled “Gotchas”
  • Public summary is not auto-generated. Write it deliberately, in language a parent would understand. “Director of a company supplying the trust” is fine; “PSC of Acme Holdings Ltd, T/A Acme IT Solutions” is over-disclosure.
  • Don’t delete a declaration. The audit trail under the ATH requires history. Use is_active = false to retire.
  • Linked person makes the row authoritative — if the governor changes name in the people register, the declaration’s display name updates. If not linked, you’ll need to edit each declaration manually.
Section titled “Related”