Local government standards are on the move yet again. In 2000, the Blair government introduced standards committees (to promote and maintain high conduct standards for council members); the Standards Board for England ((SBE), later ‘Standards for England’), to receive written allegations of failure to comply with the authority’s mandatory code of conduct; and ethical standards officers to investigate cases referred by the SBE and others. But in 2010, the Conservative-led coalition government felt that Labour’s standards regime had become too bureaucratic and ‘a vehicle for malicious and frivolous complaints’. It said it was ‘axing the unpopular and unelected standards board regime’ and instead would ensure legislatively that ‘if a councillor is corrupt and abuses their office for personal gain they will be dealt with in the criminal courts’. But: ‘If a councillor behaves ineffectively or irresponsibly then it’s a matter for the electorate, not an unelected quango.’
This approach was criticised as toothless, allowing bad and disreputable behaviour by local authority members to pass unpunished. So, in a review of local government ethical standards published in 2019 by the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL), it was said that ‘the current sanctions available to local authorities are insufficient’. Moreover: ‘The lack of robust sanctions damages public confidence in the standards system and leaves local authorities with no means of enforcing lower level sanctions, nor of addressing serious or repeated misconduct.’ CSPL recommended that: ‘Local authorities should… be given the power to suspend councillors without allowances for up to six months.’ However, Kemi Badenoch, then minister of state for equalities and levelling up communities, rejected this: ‘It would be undesirable to have a government quango to police the free speech of councillors.’
Nevertheless, on 18 December 2024, the Labour government’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government issued a consultation on ‘Strengthening the standards and conduct framework for local authorities in England’. This ‘seeks views on introducing a mandatory minimum code of conduct for local authorities in England, and measures to strengthen the standards and conduct regime in England to ensure consistency of approach among councils investigating serious breaches of their member codes of conduct, including the introduction of the power of suspension’. While ‘this government wants to celebrate the positive power of public service’, it equally wishes to give individual authorities appropriate and proportionate means to deal with any misconduct effectively and decisively. Although ‘robust political debate is part of our democratic system’, the government also knows from local authorities that bullying, harassment or other misconduct, even from a small minority of members, can have a seriously destabilising effect, potentially bringing a council into disrepute and distracting from the critical business of delivering for residents. The government therefore seeks views on proposals designed to strengthen the standards and conduct framework.
Legislation is proposed to introduce a mandatory minimum code of conduct, seeking ‘to ensure a higher minimum standard of consistency in setting out the behaviours expected of elected members’ and uphold consistently high standards of public service across the country. The government proposes to include the mandatory code in regulations ‘to allow flexibility to review and amend in future’. Currently, adopted codes vary significantly, ranging from those adopting the full Local Government Association model code, to those conforming only with the minimum requirement of restating the Nolan principles of public life (selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership).
The consultation also proposes requiring all principal authorities to convene a standards committee to support consistency in handling misconduct allegations and enabling expertise to develop in handling such allegations. Authorities will also have to publish a summary of conduct breach allegations and any investigations and decisions. Moreover, when a member stands down during a live code of conduct investigation, councils must conclude the investigation and publish the findings.
As to sanctions, the government says local authorities should be able to suspend councillors for serious code of conduct breaches for a maximum of six months, with the option to withhold allowances. And also, when appropriate, to institute premises, equipment and facilities bans. Since the suspension power was removed, feedback indicates that local authorities have no effective way of dealing with more serious examples of member misconduct. The government agrees with the CSPL that the maximum length of suspension without allowances should be six months. However, this should be reserved for serious code breaches and there should be no minimum suspension length ‘to facilitate the proportionate application of this strengthened sanction’. However, giving councils discretion to withhold allowances from members suspended for serious conduct breaches could provide a further deterrent against unethical behaviour. And equipment and facilities bans for suspended members could be salutary, following any behavioural or financial misconduct. In addition, where a member is suspended more than once in a five-year period, a five-year disqualification ‘would act as a strong deterrent against the worst kind of behaviours becoming embedded’.
Finally, a single right of appeal is proposed for any suspension. The government is unsure if this should be in-house or (its preference) an independent or existing national body. While the former might enable quicker resolutions, empowering a national body to oversee appeals from suspended members and complainants could reinforce transparency and impartiality and help to ensure consistency of decision-making throughout England. Monitoring officers will no doubt be assisting their authorities’ responses to this important consultation.
Nicholas Dobson writes on local government, public law and governance
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