Localism Bill

My Lords, I should also like to speak to Amendments 5 to 9, 11 to 13, 68, 74 and 75. We had an extensive discussion on Report on the provisions dealing with local authority standards. It was obvious from the strength of feeling exhibited that noble Lords considered this matter to be important and worthy of careful consideration. There was much common ground in that debate. Everyone in this Chamber agreed about the importance of maintaining the highest standards of conduct in local authorities. There was also broad agreement that the Standards Board regime has become a vehicle for vexatious, petty and politically motivated complaints, with more than half the allegations of misconduct being rejected when assessed. At the same time, concerns were voiced that the provisions that we had set out to deal with local authority standards after the abolition of Standards Board regime were too localist and not up to the task of ensuring the high standards of conduct that we expect of local authority members. We undertook on Report to take those concerns away and see whether we could strengthen the provisions to address the concerns. Over the past few weeks, we have reflected carefully on that debate and had extensive and useful discussions with noble Lords on their concerns. As a result of that, I am bringing back a package of amendments to modify the standards provisions in the Bill. All authorities will be required to have a code of conduct. Amendment 4 would put that in place, and local authorities must, as part of their duty to promote and maintain high standards of conduct, have a code of conduct. This requirement applies to parish councils as well as to principal authorities. That code of conduct must be in accordance with the Nolan principles of public life. Amendment 5 states that a code of conduct adopted by a local authority should be consistent with the seven Nolan principles: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. The code of conduct will, in addition, have to include the requirement for members to register and disclose interests. Amendment 5 provides that the code of conduct must include the requirement for members to register and disclose their pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests. Noble Lords will recall that under Clause 34 a member will be committing a crime if, without reasonable excuse, they fail to declare or register a pecuniary interest or if they knowingly or recklessly provide false or misleading information about that pecuniary interest. Further, under Amendment 8 all local authorities will have to put in place a system to deal with allegations that members have breached the code. We are not going to dictate to them what those arrangements should be. They could, for example, continue to have a voluntary standards committee or they could adopt an alternative approach, but they must have in place arrangements as I have outlined. To ensure that there is a strong independent element in these new arrangements, Amendment 8 also provides that a local authority must appoint an independent person through a transparent process and that, where a local authority has investigated an allegation, it must seek the independent person’s view before reaching a decision about the allegation. It must then have regard to that view. We believe that this will ensure that there is a check on vexatious or politically motivated complaints. In addition, we have provided that a person against whom a complaint is made may also seek the views of the independent person. This will ensure that if a councillor feels victimised or pressured by a member or members of the council or the authority, he or she can have access to the independent person for a view. In an investigation, where a complaint was dismissed, that would be the end of the matter. Where a complaint was upheld, a council would then have a number of options open to it under existing provisions. These are not there by amendment; they are existing provisions. In relatively minor cases, the council might conclude that a formal letter or other form of recording the matter was appropriate. Where a case involved a bigger breach of the rules, a council might conclude that formal censure—for example, through a motion on the floor of the council—was required. In more serious cases of misconduct, the council might go further and use its existing powers to remove the member from the committee or committees for a time. We believe that this approach provides effective and robust sanctions, ensuring that the high standards of conduct in public life can be maintained, while avoiding the unnecessary bureaucracy of the standards board regime. The requirement for an authority to have a code of conduct applies to parish councils as well as principal authorities. However, recognising the administrative limitations of parish councils, the relevant district or unitary council will administer the scheme for them. I beg to move.