Committee on Standards in Public Life: Getting the balance right: Implementing standards of conduc…
R10-30
Published January 2005
Response position and delivery status are recorded separately. Acceptance does not establish implementation.
Recommendation (the Committee's words)
Prior to the introduction of the locally-based system consideration should be given as part of the review of the Code of Conduct to amend the duty to report a possible breach of the Code so that it becomes a “duty to report a possible breach to the monitoring officer and Standards Committee chair” who would then be responsible for deciding whether a formal complaint to the Standards Board should be made.
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)
Following its review of the code, the Board has proposed that the requirement in the code for members to report to the Board any breach of the code by other members should be deleted. They take this view because of the encouragement some members feel this provision gives to the reporting of trivial or vexatious complaints. We intend to accept this proposal.
Following the introduction of a locally-based system, it will be a matter for standards committees to make decisions on whether cases should be referred to the Standards Board for action. However, prior to the introduction of that revised regime, and in advance of advice and guidance from the Board, it would be premature straightaway to give standards committee chairs a filtering role. Before local filtering is introduced, the Board will continue to copy information on all local allegations to local monitoring officers, so as to share experience on how such cases might be effectively dealt with, and will be working with authorities on the development of their knowledge of the issues and their capacity to deal with cases.
Following the introduction of a locally-based system, it will be a matter for standards committees to make decisions on whether cases should be referred to the Standards Board for action. However, prior to the introduction of that revised regime, and in advance of advice and guidance from the Board, it would be premature straightaway to give standards committee chairs a filtering role. Before local filtering is introduced, the Board will continue to copy information on all local allegations to local monitoring officers, so as to share experience on how such cases might be effectively dealt with, and will be working with authorities on the development of their knowledge of the issues and their capacity to deal with cases.
From: HM Government. Source document ↗