LGA survey finds 63% of councils have adopted Model Councillor Code of Conduct in whole or in part

Almost two-thirds of councils in England (63%) have adopted the Local Government Association’s Model Councillor Code of Conduct either completely or partially and 37% have not.

This was revealed by an LGA survey carried out this summer on the impact and utility of the Model Code, which was launched in December 2020.

The survey was sent to monitoring officers in all principal councils in England, including district, county, unitary, metropolitan districts, and London boroughs. The final overall response rate to the survey was 35% (110 councils).

It also found that:

• More than four in five respondent councils (82%) had adopted the Local Government Association’s Model Councillor Code of Conduct to at least some extent, with 25% adopting it in full and 40% adopting the code with some additions or minor amendments.
• Almost all respondents had reviewed their councillor code of conduct since the Model Councillor Code of Conduct was launched in December 2020, with 85% conducting a formal review and 10% an informal review.
• Of the councils which reviewed their code of conduct, 97% used the code to inform their review.
• Among councils which used the Model Councillor Code of Conduct to inform their review, 73% reported it being ‘Very useful’ and 25% stated it was ‘Fairly useful’.
• A light touch review of the constitutions of councils that did not respond to the survey indicated that 54% of non-respondent councils had adopted the Model Councillor Code of Conduct in full or in part.

The survey also looked at the impact and utility of LGA supportive resources such as the LGA Guidance on the Model Councillor Code of Conduct, the LGA Guidance on the Member Model Code of Conduct Complaints Handling, the LGA Adaptable Model Code of Conduct Training Pack for Monitoring Officers, and the LGA Councillor Code of Conduct E-learning.

The survey findings can be found here.