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Isle of Wight Council

Without talking about specific cases, of course I can. There can be malicious complainants who understand that delay prejudices proceedings against the person complained of. I appreciate that, and so does the Standards Board. My point is that there are sometimes reasons, which we need to understand, for delays, particularly in protracted cases. I was trying to make the point—although I did not do so clearly enough—that although a delay of more than six months occurs in a small number of cases, there are usually reasons for that, albeit that the hon. Gentleman and I would find that delay unacceptable, because we want investigations to be fair, swift and dealt with as soon as possible. The hon. Gentleman mentioned that an investigation process might be protracted by new evidence coming to light. New evidence arriving and changing the direction of an investigation is not just the stuff of fictional courtroom melodrama; in real life new evidence can complicate matters as well as resolving them. New evidence means further investigation, and thorough further investigation takes time. That is crucial if we are to ensure that the process is fair to all involved. The outcomes of the investigations have an impact on reputations, careers and lives. They are not undertaken lightly. The Standards Board realises its responsibility; it realises that councillors trade with the public in the currency of trust—a currency as vulnerable to devaluation as any other. We believe that the current system—a locally based conduct regime with local authorities responsible for holding their own members to account, regulated by the Standards Board—is the right approach to underpin a functional, proportionate, effective conduct regime and a healthy local democracy. I congratulate the hon. Gentleman once again on raising the issue, and on the tenor and manner of the speech in which he did so.