How a public role attaches to a person

A public role is a register fact

A person on this index has a published role or an identifier already attached. A councillor on a council directory, an MP from the Parliament list, a board member named on a filing with an officer id. The role is what the body published. It is a fact on a register. It is not a statement that the person received a benefit, a contract, or a favour.

The word seat is easy to mix up. On this site, a seat is a signed-in account. On a member or a councillor, a seat can mean a constituency or a place on a body. This guide uses public role for the register fact, and account when it means sign-in.

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

A name in a paper is not a role

Committees mention people who are not on the directory. Officers, applicants, objectors, contractors. Those names are in the file. They do not create a person. We do not mint a Person from a sentence in a minute, from a donor line, or from a supplier name.

Two people can share a name. A unique first and last name is not an identifier. A published member id, an officer id, or a directory row the body itself printed is an identifier. Methodology states that difference.

A public role is also not a Companies House appointment, unless that appointment is already attached by the officer id. Directorships are a different register. Do not read a councillor entry as a list of companies.

A worked example

Open Sefton Council. The page can show a count of published directory roles. Those roles are what the council published. They are not a national officers dump, and they are not everyone who is named in a Sefton minute.

Open Parliament for current MPs. That list is the member roll we hold, not every person who spoke in a committee the council hosted. An MP's written questions are on Questions. Their register is on the member. A donation that uses the same surname is still on Electoral, as text, until a number attaches it.

If you need the text of papers that mention a role, that search needs an account. Start a trial. The role itself, where the directory is public on the body, is a count and a list the body page already explains.

What this is not

When you describe someone, say the role and the body: a published councillor on Sefton, a current MP on the Parliament list. Do not add 'and therefore benefited' or 'and therefore decided the contract'. The role does not carry that sentence. If a paper and a role need to be read together, cite both and leave the inference to the reader.

Vacancies and heading words are not people. A directory line that is a role title without a person is not a person. The public People page will not show you a list to check that against. The body page, where the directory is held, is the place to read the count of roles the body published. If you are describing a councillor, say the council and that the role is published. If you are describing an MP, say current or former and point at the Parliament list. If you are describing a name you only saw in a PDF, say you saw it in that PDF. Those three sentences are all lawful descriptions. The harmful one is the blend: a person, a role they were not given on a register, and a contract they were not shown to hold. Resist the blend. The index is built to resist it. Your note should be built the same way, even when the story would be shorter if you did not.

It is not a benefit. It is not an allegation about conduct. It is not every UK director. The national officers file is not poured into People.

Child records stay behind sign-in. The public People page does not list names.