Watchdog blasts "inadequate sanctions" in local government standards regime

The Committee on Standards in Public Life has renewed its attack on shortcomings in the local authority standards regime brought in under the Localism Act, saying that there are “inadequate sanctions” in the framework.

In its annual report, published at the end of last month, the committee said it welcomed the Act’s objectives of returning to a standards regime operated at a local level. It also said it recognised the importance of limiting vexatious complaints.

The committee nevertheless said it was concerned that the original bill “went too far in dismantling some of the other elements in the previous regime”.

It approved of the amendments in the House of Lords to maintain the mandatory requirement for each local authority to have a code of conduct based on the Nolan Principles and to retain some provision to investigate non-adherence to the code.  

“We remain concerned, however, about what we regard as inadequate sanctions in the new arrangements for non-adherence to local authorities’ new codes,” the committee said.

“We believe that it is insufficient to leave any instances of poor conduct to be dealt with only through the criminal law or through the discipline of the ballot box. In our view there have been numerous examples of types of behaviour for which a criminal prosecution would not be appropriate, or easy to undertake, but which most people would think fall short of the standards expected of public office holders and deserving of some sort of sanction.”

The committee said there was a significant risk under the new arrangements that inappropriate conduct by local authority members would not be dealt with effectively, “eroding public confidence in local government at a time when the scope of local decision-making in planning and other matters is being increased”.

Writing in the introduction, Sir Christopher Kelly said: “We believe the new system is inherently risky and we will continue to monitor actively the situation.”

A copy of the committee’s annual report can be found here. 

The Localism Act received Royal Assent in January this year. Standards for England, which had oversight of the local authority standards regime, was abolished from 31 March.

In June the committee warned that a large number of local authorities appeared to be unprepared for the new standards regime coming into force from 1 July.

However, in August then local government minister Bob Neill warned monitoring officers against taking a “heavy bureaucratic, ‘gold-plated’ approach’ to the revamped regime. 

Philip Hoult