Flag Protocol

In office hours (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm), the Policy team will generally co-ordinate flag activity with the facilities team.

The Head of Policy and Comms and the Policy team will receive notification through either email or formal announcement of any requirements to change the flags flying outside our designated buildings. DCE senior management will be responsible for contacting the duty director to obtain permissions to initiate parts the flag protocol if not already given, such as moving flags to fly at half mast.

Once permission is received, contact will be made with Facilities Management to inform them of events and if required, the flag protocol telephone tree (Appendix C – In hours) must be initiated. The Policy team will also contact comms who will manage any external or internal messages about the matter.

Out of hours, others may need to take a responsibility for notifications within the flag protocol telephone tree (see Appendix D – Out of hours).

Any non-standard flag activity must be agreed or approved by the Service Director for Partnerships, Policy and Comms, the Deputy Chief Executive, the Duty Corporate Director or an appropriate member of CMT.

The Duty Director will receive notification (likely from the policy team) of a significant event and will be responsible for deciding whether the flag protocol should be initiated. Any queries regarding the Flag Protocol initiation should be raised with the duty director.

Facilities are responsible for ensuring that all flag adjustments occur uniformly and compliantly across all council sites and will need to send confirmation of planned changes to the flag status to the policy team and duty director.

The Facilities Team are also responsible for the storage, repair, replacement, and disposal of flags at each site, and must ensure they have the correct flags required for upcoming events. All flags should be in a good condition, without tears or blemish. This will be monitored through periodic maintenance undertaken by the responsible flag keeper at each office. Repairs can be completed through preferred suppliers.

If disposal of flags is required then this must be done in a dignified way, following guidance from the Flag Institute. Examples include Burning, tearing, or cutting into unrecognisable strips. Flag requirements can be found in Section 2 of this protocol.

The Communications team are responsible for formulating relevant messages externally, including those which specifically mention when the status of the flags have changed across the council buildings.