Committee on Standards in Public Life Consultation, Standards 2: January 2021

Recommendations:

1. We recommend that the Committee on Standards in Public Life conduct a review, building on this consultation, into which of the institutions regulating ethical standards should be consolidated into an independent, transparent, accountable statutory regulator, with the remit, powers and resources to properly regulate ethical standards and hold people with top executive functions and other public officials to account.
2. Our preference would be for the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments and the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests – and potentially other institutions, subject to the Committee on Standards in Public Life review – to be replaced with an independent Ethics Commission; and for this Commission to oversee and enforce enhanced, statutory codes of conduct for ministers and special advisers, and post-employment rules for senior civil servants.
3. We recommend that both the Ministerial Code and the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers be enhanced to improve their effectiveness, enabling ministers and special advisers to be investigated and suitable sanctions imposed by an independent Ethics Commission, and that the revised statutory codes – covering conflicts of interest, lobbying, financial disclosures and post-employment rules – be overseen by an independent Ethics Commission.