In a democracy, it is crucial that elected members in local government inspire confidence and have the trust of the electorate. All local authorities must have a member code of conduct. Councils can decide what their local codes cover, although they must as a minimum conform to the seven \u2018Nolan\u2019 principles of standards in public life.<\/p>
The Committee on Standards in Public Life review of Local Government Ethical Standards recommended strengthening the local government standards system with a range of legislative amendments. The Government response noted that some do not need legislation and can be better taken forward as best practice.\u202f We made commitments in response to the review, including on strengthening sanctions, and will engage with local authority representative organisations in due course.<\/p>
Councils have a number of options if councillors breach the code of conduct, including formal rebuke, removal of portfolio responsibilities and representative roles, and requiring members to undertake training.<\/p>
It is the role of the Monitoring Officer to ensure that the council complies with the law and their own stated policies and procedures at all times. The Localism Act 2011 requires local authorities to appoint at least one Independent Person to assist the Monitoring Officer in investigations into code of conduct breaches.<\/p>
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigates complaints from members of the public who have suffered personal injustice arising from maladministration by local authorities. Concerns about the conduct of local authority officers may be taken into account as part of an investigation into a complaint about the local authority. The Ombudsman does not, however, consider complaints solely about the behaviour of officers \u2013 such complaints are a matter for the local authority as the employer.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4652", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lee Rowley"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "North East Derbyshire"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lee Rowley"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2023-01-23", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : [{"_value" : "122446"} , {"_value" : "122447"} , {"_value" : "122511"} , {"_value" : "122512"} ], "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2023-01-23T17:55:40.903Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "211"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Levelling Up, Housing and Communities"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Levelling Up, Housing and Communities"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2023-01-13", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Local Government: Standards"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Government response to the Committee on Standards in Public Life review of local government ethical standards, published on 18 March 2022, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing that response and implementing the recommendations of the review.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4006", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hendon"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Dr Matthew Offord"} ], "uin" : "122445"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/821527", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/821527/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
The final proposals for the development of the pools in July 2016 estimated set up costs excluding transition of assets of around £20 million, and initial running costs of around £11 million per annum, in order to achieve estimated total net savings of £1-2 billion by 2033. The costs of establishing each pool in the local government pension scheme, and future costs, will be met by the participating funds and will be published in the annual reports of the pools.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4483", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Rishi Sunak"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Richmond (Yorks)"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Rishi Sunak"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-01-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-01-17T16:56:18.757Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "7"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Housing, Communities and Local Government"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Housing, Communities and Local Government"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-01-12", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Local Government Pension Scheme"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government what the cost to the public purse of establishing each local government pension scheme pool has been to date; and what costs to the public purse his Department has forecast for each local government pension scheme pool in each year until 2020.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4397", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Peter Dowd"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Bootle"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Peter Dowd"} ], "uin" : "122445"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }