Ethics in local government

On 15 December 2005, the Government issued a Discussion Paper, Standards of Conduct in English Local Government: The Future, which set out the Government's vision for a future conduct regime for local government members and employees. The paper also provided a coordinated response to a series of recent recommendations, reviews and consultations relevant to conduct issues in local government.

The proposals aim to bring together the different elements of the conduct regime - including the members' code of conduct, the Standards Board, local standards committees, and a new code of conduct for local government employees - into an integrated whole. In particular, the government proposes to simplify and clarify the code of conduct for members, so that it better reflects the way modern councils work and is easier for members and others to understand and use.

It also proposes developing local ownership of the conduct regime by enabling local standards committees' to make initial assessments of all misconduct allegations, and to investigate and determine all but the most serious cases of misconduct. The Standards Board for England will have a strong strategic, advisory and monitoring role, and will retain responsibility for investigating the most serious misconduct allegations.

The government envisages the conduct regime relating to local authority employees will be made more systematic, in particular, by the introduction of a code of conduct for employees, taking into account lessons learnt in the operation of the code for members. The government proposes to retain the current rules requiring senior local authority posts to be politically restricted, but to limit them to only the most senior and sensitive posts.