Written question asked by Andrew Dismore (Labour) on Monday, 23 May 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 25 May 2005. It was answered by Phil Woolas (Labour) on Monday, 6 June 2005 on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Local Government Standards Board

Question: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average length of time was between a complaint being made to the Standards Board and (a) being found proven and fully disposed of and (b) being dismissed in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: This information is shown on the following table. Average time 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 Where cases were not investigated, or where no evidence of a breach was found, or where no further action was required (days) 24 22 13 Where ethical standards officer conducted an investigation and made a finding that a breach of the code had occurred (months) 4.25 7.34 9.64 The lower average for the completion of those cases where a breach was found in 2002–03 reflected a number of relatively straightforward cases in that year, relating to parish councillors refusing to fill in a register of interests. The higher average in 2004–05 reflects the efforts the Standards Board made last year to clear a backlog of outstanding older cases.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 1041; 434 c407-8W;434 c409W
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Complaints Councillors Conduct Administrative delays Standards Board for England
Contains statistics: Yes