Committee on Standards in Public Life: Getting the balance right: Implementing standards of conduc…
R10-19
Published January 2005
Response position and delivery status are recorded separately. Acceptance does not establish implementation.
Recommendation (the Committee's words)
The Government should introduce, as a matter of urgency, secondary legislation to require a majority of independent members and an independent chair for Standards Committees and sub-committees in England. This is a critical element of our proposals to improve the existing system and to lay the ground for the subsequent introduction of the locally-based system.
From: Committee on Standards in Public Life, Getting the balance right: Implementing standards of conduct in public life, January 2005
Government response
Government response (the government's words)
We accept that more locally-based decision making needs to be supported by an increase in the capacity and capability of standards committees to deal with the increased numbers of cases and their new filtering role, so as to ensure the fairness and independence of decision-making, on which public confidence in the system depends. We accept that this will be assisted by requiring that all chairmen of standards committees should be independent and committees should include independent members who reflect a balance of experience, but not that a majority of members should be independent since we consider it important to ensure the local ownership of standards by all members.
From: HM Government. Source document ↗