The first Ethics and Integrity Commission’s (EIC) annual letter to the Prime Minister is out and it provides a really welcome annual health check up on the UK’s standards framework.
While praising some of the positive steps the government has made towards bolstering integrity standards in the UK, the letter warns that ‘progress is at risk of stalling’ without personal leadership from the Prime Minister to accelerate standards reform.
There are four particular areas of the nine themes covered by the letter on which we think urgent prime ministerial attention is now needed:
1. Lack of legislation for implementing local government standards reform
The government has done all the hard preparation on this – its response to a consultation on strengthening the standards framework for local authorities was published nearly a year ago. In the context of the Burnham government’s ambitious plans for devolution, this could not be more important.
In August, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) urged the UK to put in place a statutory framework for sanctioning local elected officials where they breach codes of conduct, and to regulate the transparency of lobbying for public officials.
The government needs to commit to bringing forward reforms in the next King’s speech that beef up local standards, and enhance democratic accountability, including for mayoralties. If it really wanted to show it is ready to move quickly on this, it could use the remaining stages of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill in the House of Lords to do so. Government amendments on mandatory codes of conduct for elected councillors and a legislative hook for secondary legislation for a new national appeals body, would be straight forward to insert.
2. The urgency of bringing forward legislation to implement lobbying transparency reform
The government’s upcoming response to the EIC’s report on reforming the framework for lobbying transparency, published in July, is a crucial opportunity to show it’s serious about cleaning up politics and avoiding another big major lobbying scandal. It is also a crucial test of its willingness to listen to the EIC.
While some of the recommendations the EIC has made would require primary legislation to implement, the EIC is right to highlight the crucial easy fixes the government could be getting on with in the meantime. These include extending transparency to special advisors, who play a critical role in policy formulation and setting up a single, accessible transparency database – which doesn’t require any primary legislation and would be transformative in enabling the public to see who is lobbying their representatives.
The previous minister for democracy, Baroness Anderson, said that the government would endeavour to respond within 6 working weeks to the EIC’s reports, which means that a response should be due any day now. There was welcome recognition from the current government in September confirming that it was ‘considering the case for legislative reform very carefully’. . This is something the government needs to show that it is willing to act on and fast.
3. Recognition that a reliance on large donations damages trust in politics
In its letter, the EIC recognises that ‘the reliance on large donations from a limited number of sources creates the risk that donors may exert undue influence, or may be perceived to do so, which is damaging for trust in politics’.
The EIC is tapping into widespread public sentiment. The Electoral Commission found through deliberative polling that there was significant support for a donation cap from participants, and increasingly more public funding to achieve it.
As the EIC points out, the government has shown some willingness to act, having placed a £100,000 cap on overseas British voters. However, this doesn’t address the risk of resident British voters donating huge amounts of money.
In response to public pressure, the government has established a ‘task and finish’ group to look at threats to the UK’s democracy, including mega-donations. Holding back from recommending a donation cap itself, the EIC recommends instead ‘that the cross-government ‘task and finish’ team announced in September engage with all major political parties so that decisions are not seen to be enacted in a partisan manner.’
However more urgent action can be taking in the government’s Representation of the People Bill – to ensure a cap is put in place. A mechanism that sets a donation cap or creates a mechanism for one to be set through an independent process led by the Electoral Commission would help limit the risk that many mulit-million pound donations could be made this side of a general election, that could skew its fairness and lead to a political finance arms race.
4. Call for statutory footing for standards regulator
The EIC’s letter calls for the Prime Minister to go further on bolstering the Independent Advisor on Ministerial Standards, by putting the role on a statutory footing.
This is a principle that can and should be applied to all other standards regulators, including the House of Lords Appointments Commission, and to the Ethics and Integrity Commission itself. Without a basis in primary legislation, the EIC’s powers – such as to advise public authorities on their codes of conduct – are limited, and it risks being perceived as yet another quango and being abolished by a future government at the stroke of a pen. Current amendments to the Public Office Accountability Bill would require the government to bring forward legislation to do precisely this within 12 months of it passing – the government should seize the chance.
Call for action
None of these reforms are radical or internationally unprecedented. Rather, they are tried-and-tested ways of ensuring transparency and protecting democracy.
The letter declares to the Prime Minister that ‘your personal leadership is needed’ and we couldn’t agree more. A culture of political integrity must come from the top. The Prime Minister has said he wants to do politics differently; taking these steps would be a clear way to prove that.
