Surveys of public opinion – including our own – continue to show that trust in the UK’s elected officials is abysmally low. The blame for much of this can be laid at the door of the behaviour of senior political figures in the last decade. But those actions have been enabled by a lax system of regulating the behaviour of elected officials, both during their time in office and afterwards, that relies far too heavily on an outdated “good chaps” theory of regulation.
Spotlight advocates for improvements in the way standards in public life are regulated and monitors the government’s efforts in this area. As part of this work, we recommend putting the standards regulators on a statutory footing and giving them the resources and independence to do their jobs properly. We also advocate for improved lobbying transparency and more effective procedures for tackling conflicts of interest in government.
A series of political scandals in recent years have exposed significant weaknesses in the UK’s system for the regulation of lobbying. The UK’s standards landscape must be brought up to date to ensure that integrity and ethics in government are regulated in a way that befits a modern democracy; strengthening the Lobbying Act is a central plank of that process. Enhancing the UK’s system for lobbying would ensure greater transparency and more equal access to government, with positive consequences for public decision-making and the use of public resources.
The last few years have seen intense and growing public debate about how the standards of behaviour by politicians and senior government officials should be regulated in the UK. At...
