A public role is a register fact, not a benefit

A published role is what a body printed on a directory or a roll: a councillor on a council, an MP on the Parliament list, a board seat named with an identifier. It is a register fact. It is not a benefit, a contract, or a finding about conduct. The word seat on this site also means a signed-in account. This note uses public role for the register, so the two are not mixed.

A name in a minute is not a role. Committees mention officers, applicants, and objectors who are not on the directory. Those names stay in the file. We do not mint a person from a sentence. How a public role attaches to a person is the longer account, including why a vacancy line is not a person.

Sefton Council can show a count of published directory roles. That count is what Sefton published. It is not everyone named in a Sefton paper, and it is not a national officers file. Parliament is the member roll we hold. An MP's questions are on the questions page. A donation that uses the same surname stays text on the Electoral page until a number attaches it.

Logged out, People is one sentence and a count. It does not list names. A page of names is a directory that gets copied. The count is the proof the section holds people. The named record needs an account.

When you describe someone, say the role and the body. A published councillor on a named council. A current MP on the Parliament list. A name you only saw in a PDF, described as a name in that PDF. Do not blend the three into one person who 'therefore' held a contract. The role does not carry that sentence.

Two people can share a name. A first name and a surname are not an identifier. A published member id or a directory row the body printed is an identifier. If you do not have it, you have a name. Write the name in quotes and the file it came from.

A public role can end. Former members stay former. Do not describe a former councillor as if the directory still listed them, and do not describe a current one as former because an old paper used their name. Check the directory date the page gives you, or say you do not have it. Parliament's list marks current and former when you ask it to. Use that mark. A role that has ended is still a register fact about the time it existed. It is still not a benefit. Ending the role does not create a new allegation, and holding the role does not create one either. The fact is the listing. Anything beyond the listing needs another file, cited on its own line, or it does not belong in the piece.

A directorship is a different register again. A councillor is not, by that role, a list of companies. If an officer id already attaches an appointment, the appointment can be cited as an appointment. If it does not, you have a role on a council and a rumour about a company. Publish the role. Leave the rumour out. The index will not launder it into a register fact.

The public People page stays a sentence so the names are not a directory to be copied. That is deliberate. Use the body page for the count of roles that body published, and Parliament for the member roll. Use an account when you need the named record. Do not work around the public page by pasting a list you built from minutes. Those names were not roles.