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Local Government: Conduct Regime

My right honourable friend the Minister for Local Government (John Healey) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. On 8 May 2008 we introduced through the Standards Committee (England) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1085) the new, devolved conduct regime for local authority members, in which responsibility for standards of conduct and dealing with allegations of misconduct by members is largely for each council’s independently chaired standards committee with the Standards Board for England having the role of a strategic regulator. I have today laid before the House the Standards Committee (Further Provisions)(England) Regulations 2009, further developing the devolved conduct regime by allowing councils to set up joint standards committees and making clearer the rules for such committees to grant dispensation to members who would otherwise be excluded from an item of business on the grounds of conflict of interest. The regulations also strengthen the Standards Board’s regulatory role by enabling it to intervene in cases of poor performance by a council’s standards committee. These regulations, which we have prepared in consultation with the local government sector, will come into force on 15 June. The next development of the regime will be a revision to the code of conduct in the light of our consultation last year and experience to date.