Can a parish council hold virtual meetings?

No. As at September 2026, a parish or town council in England must hold its meetings in person. Members attending by video link are not "present", and do not count towards the quorum.

Government has said it plans to change this. It hasn't yet, and no Bill to do so is before Parliament.

England only. General guidance, not legal advice.

What happened during the pandemic, and why it ended

Remote meetings were lawful for a period, under the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020, made under s.78 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. Parish councils were expressly in scope - s.78(7)(g).

That power was always time-limited. Section 78(3) allowed regulations only "in relation to local authority meetings required to be held, or held, before 7 May 2021", and the regulations said the same. The enabling section has itself since expired in England, on 9 December 2021, so there is no dormant power sitting there waiting to be switched back on.

The case that settled it

When councils asked whether remote meetings could continue without new legislation, a Divisional Court said no: Hertfordshire County Council, Lawyers in Local Government and the Association of Democratic Services Officers v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2021] EWHC 1093 (Admin), decided 28 April 2021. The National Association of Local Councils was an interested party.

The conclusion, at paragraph 89:

"…once the Flexibility Regulations cease to apply, such meetings must take place at a single, specified geographical location; attending a meeting at such a location means physically going to it; and being 'present' at such a meeting involves physical presence at that location."

The court was explicit that it wasn't ruling on the merits of remote meetings (paragraph 90): the choice "involves difficult policy choices… In England, they are for Parliament, not the courts."

What that means in practice

A member on a video link is not present. The quorum for a parish council meeting is at least one third of the whole number of members, and never fewer than three (LGA 1972, Schedule 12, paragraph 12). Read with the judgment, a remote attendee doesn't count towards it and can't vote. A meeting that is only quorate once the video link is counted is not quorate.

A council may still stream the meeting - and the public may film it regardless. Under the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 as amended by the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014, at a meeting of a parish council "while the meeting is open to the public any person attending is to be permitted to report on the meeting", and "reporting" expressly covers filming, audio recording and live commentary. The council doesn't have to do the streaming itself, and doesn't have to allow oral commentary from someone in the room - but it can't stop a resident recording.

Streaming is an addition, not a substitute. Whether a meeting counts as "open to the public" if the only public access is remote was expressly left undecided in the judgment (paragraphs 92–93), and no later ruling has resolved it. So where a council streams, it must still admit the public to the room.

Informal working groups are a different thing. A working group that only advises - that takes no decisions and has no delegated function - isn't a meeting of the council or of a committee, so the meeting rules don't bite on it, and there's no obvious obstacle to it meeting by video. Two cautions: a council cannot delegate any function to a working group at all (functions go to a committee, sub-committee or officer under LGA 1972 s.101), and an advisory committee is still a committee, so it must meet in person. If a "working group" is in substance a committee, treat it as one.

What's changing, and when

In October 2024 the government consulted on "Enabling remote attendance and proxy voting at local authority meetings". Most responses came from town and parish councils - 3,327 of them. The government's response, published 5 June 2025, says:

"We have carefully considered arguments for and against remote attendance and proxy voting, and we plan to legislate to support permanent provision in relation to both policies, when parliamentary time allows. On remote attendance, we plan to permit local authorities to develop their own locally appropriate policies, if they decide to hold remote meetings."

That commitment has not yet been delivered. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 does not contain any remote meetings provision, and NALC publicly criticised its omission from the Bill. No Bill currently before Parliament would change the position.

So the honest answer is: not yet, and no date. A council planning around this should plan on the law as it stands.

What to do instead

• Hybrid for the public, in person for members. Members attend; anyone who wants to watch can watch a stream. That's lawful today and gets most of the accessibility benefit.
• Use delegation properly. Much of what pushes councils towards emergency remote meetings is urgent business that should sit with the clerk under a delegated authority. Review the scheme of delegation rather than the video-conferencing arrangements.
• Working groups can meet by video, within the limits above, and can do the preparatory work that makes the formal meeting short.
• Publish papers well ahead. Members who've read the papers need less meeting. See three clear days' notice.

If getting papers to members is what makes meetings hard to arrange, that part is solvable now: CouncilPapers publishes the agenda and notifies every councillor the moment it's committed, and the Councillor App gives them the full history of any item on their phone. Book a demo.

Last reviewed 26 September 2026. General guidance for councils in England, not legal advice.