Standards of Conduct in the House of Lords

The House of Lords should adopt a short Code of Conduct.

The Code should incorporate both the Seven Principles of Public Life and the principles adopted by the House of Lords in its 1995 Resolution, viz. 1. Members of the House should act always on their personal honour; and 2. Members should never accept any financial inducement or reward for exercising parliamentary influence.

The Code should also incorporate the principles which the House of Lords adopts concerning the registration of members’ interests.

The registration of all relevant interests should be made mandatory.

The test of ‘relevant interest’ for registration under category (3) should be whether the interest may reasonably be thought to affect the public perception of the way in which a member of the House of Lords discharges his or her parliamentary duties.

Category (3) should cover both financial and non-financial interests and such interests should be distinguished in the lay-out of the Register.

The Register should be supplemented by brief written guidance setting out a list of those interests which clearly fall within the test of ‘relevant interest’.

A member of the House of Lords who registers a relevant financial interest under category (3) should not be required to disclose in the Register the remuneration derived from that interest.

The mandatory Register should apply to all members of the House of Lords.A

Rules on private financial interests akin to those in the Ministerial Code should not be applied to opposition spokesmen and women. Lobbying and the Ban on Paid Advocacy

Members of the House of Lords should continue to be allowed to hold parliamentary consultancies, subject to the existing prohibition on paid advocacy.

The guidance on the operation of category (2) should be amended. It should be made clear that the requirement to register is not confined only to those members with interests in lobbying firms, narrowly defined.

The guidance on the operation of category (2) should also be amended so as to make it clear that members who register under that category should refrain from participating in parliamentary business only when that business relates to their own personal clients.

A member of the House of Lords who has an agreement for a consultancy or any similar arrangement under category (1) should deposit a copy of that agreement with the Registrar of Lords’ Interests.

The House of Lords should ensure that deposited agreements and details as to the remuneration derived from parliamentary services under category (1) be made available for public inspection. Compliance

The House of Lords should reconsider the existing induction arrangements for new members of the House with a view to providing more detailed guidance about the scope and operation of the conduct rules.

The general advice of the Sub-Committee on Lords’ Interests on the application of the guidance on the declaration and registration of interests should be reported, through the Committee for Privileges, to the House.

Members should be encouraged to raise in the first instance any allegation about breaches of the rules in a private communication with the member about whom the complaint is made.

Thereafter, if the complaining member chooses to pursue the matter, that member should, in accordance with the Griffiths Committee’s recommendation, refer the allegation directly to the Sub-Committee on Lords’ Interests, through its Chairman.

The Committee sees no need for the appointment of a standing Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in the House of Lords but recommends that the Sub- Committee on Lords’ Interests should be able, in appropriate cases, to appoint an ad hoc investigator.

The Sub-Committee on Lords’ Interests should continue to be responsible for the adjudication of allegations relating to the conduct of members.

In serious cases, the procedures adopted should meet the "minimum requirements of fairness" set out by the Nicholls Committee for such cases.

A member of the House of Lords who receives an adverse ruling from the Sub- Committee on Lords’ Interests should have a right of appeal to the Committee for Privileges.