Committee on Standards in Public Life: Getting the balance right: Implementing standards of conduc…
R10-21
Published January 2005
Response position and delivery status are recorded separately. Acceptance does not establish implementation.
Recommendation (the Committee's words)
That the Standards Board should take steps to communicate more robustly and publicly to complainants, members and the public more generally, those minor, trivial, vexatious and politically inspired complaints which are inappropriate to be dealt with under the ethical framework (following the example of the Local Government Ombudsman for Wales).
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 it is important for the Board to continue to respond publicly and robustly in the case of minor, trivial or vexatious complaints. It is important that the message is given to potential complainants that vexatious allegations will not be investigated and will be rejected straightaway, so as to discourage any inclination to make unfounded allegations. The Board is already active on this issue. At its suggestion, the provision in the code requiring members to report to the Board all allegations of breaches of the code by other members will be deleted, which should discourage some trivial complaints. In addition, the Board has identified a need to work with political parties further to reduce politically-inspired tit-for-tat complaints which can damage the public perception of local government.
From: HM Government. Source document ↗