Councillor Ethics: A Review of The Committee on Standards in Public Life’s ‘Local Government Ethical Standards’

Abstract

The Committee on Standards in Public life (CSPL) new report Local Government Ethical Standards presents a detailed review of local government ethics in England, aiming to highlight both best practice and areas for improvement. In so doing, it makes 26 recommendations ranging in importance. Likely to be one of the most important, and most controversial, is a recommendation to allow local authorities to suspend democratically elected councillors for up to 6 months. This article presents a review of the report and its recommendations, with a particular emphasis on the ‘values-vs-compliance’ distinction in ethical regulation.