The Regulation of Standards in British Public Life : Doing the Right Thing?

This is an analysis of the revolution of the last two decades that has built an extensive new regulatory apparatus governing British public ethics. The book sets the new machinery in the wider institutional framework of British government. Its main purpose is to understand the dilemmas of regulatory design that have emerged in each area examined. Cover -- Half-title -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Table of contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- List of boxes -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- 1 Introduction: regulating public ethics in the United Kingdom -- The scope of the book -- Regulation involving public ethics -- Categorising the regulatory framework -- Regulatory dilemmas: proportionality and regulatory risk -- Independence, self-regulation, accountability -- Analytical framework -- Notes -- 2 Integrity issues: a changing agenda -- Introduction -- Early approaches to integrity questions -- The unaddressed agenda -- The Thatcher years: changed incentives and new areas of ethical risk -- John Major and the problem of sleaze -- The impact on Labour -- Other drivers of change -- Conclusions -- Notes -- 3 Building the United Kingdom's integrity machinery: the role of the Committee on Standards in Public Life -- Introduction -- The Committee on Standards in Public Life -- The CSPL and Parliament -- Common threads: principles, codes, independent scrutiny, education and training -- Learning from doing -- The CSPL and the changing character of regulatory politics -- Conclusions -- Notes -- 4 The House of Commons: the slow erosion of self-regulation -- Introduction -- The importance of legislative ethics -- Types of impropriety in legislatures -- The Westminster system and the challenge of reform -- Tools of legislative ethics -- Self-regulation reformed -- Patterns of misconduct -- Conclusions -- Notes -- 5 The expenses crisis: statutory regulation and its difficulties -- Introduction: the ethical blind spot of parliamentary expenses -- The expenses scandal in outline -- The 2009 Parliamentary Standards Act and the 2010 Constitutional Reform and Governance Act -- Implementing the IPSA scheme for expenses -- IPSA's accountability: the framework 'This book analyses the movement to regulate standards in British public life over the last twenty years. Distrust of government is today endemic, even in advanced democracies. Distrust reflects not just voter disappointment with policy performance but diminishing confidence in the integrity of office-holders. Government needs to be cleaner than ever, in a world where transparency and accountability challenge reputations for integrity at every turn. Yet the task of raising standards and reassuring the public is complex and challenging, simply rooting out corruption is certainly not enough. The UK's reputation for high standards was dented by political sleaze in the early 1990s. There followed a long march of the Committee on Standards in Public Life through the institutions of government - Whitehall and Westminster, parties, elections and government's relationship with lobbies and interest groups - which brought a revolution in the machinery of positive public integrity and profoundly affected many aspects of British government and politics. Yet fifteen years on, confidence in the achievements of this revolution was shaken to the core by the expenses scandals of 2009. It has not yet recovered. The regulation of standards in British public life provides a detailed study of the efforts to reform a political system, infusing it with positive virtue and eradicating ethical vulnerabilities in its institutions and processes. It analyses the problems of designing and implementing integrity machinery in the UK and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of an experiment in regulation that has lessons for all advanced democracies. This book will appeal to those with an academic interest in government, policy and politics but should also be read by anyone with a general interest in the quality of government and decision-making today' --Back cover One of the most profound changes in British public life over the last twenty years has been the increasing concern with probity and standards. Some of that concern has been the product of scandals such as the cash for questions affair and the expenses scandal; some of it reflects the erosion of trust in politicians and in traditional approaches to government and administration. The book analyses the way new machinery and new rules have been put in place in different parts of the public sector as a protection against corruption and conflict of interest and as a spur to raising standards. It provides the first full-length treatment of the evolving integrity agenda in the United Kingdom. The book traces the impact of the Committee on Standards in Public Life which set out the Nolan principles in its first report in 1995 and examines how those principles have been applied in different sectors - Parliament, the executive, the civil service, local government and the devolved governments - and how they have been applied to the problems of party funding and lobbying. Finally, it assesses the changing level of support for the Committee's mission and the impact of its work both on the quality of public life itself and on public confidence. Front matter Contents List of figures List of tables List of boxes Preface Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction: regulating public ethics in the United Kingdom Integrity issues: a changing agenda Building the United Kingdom’s integrity machinery: the role of the Committee on Standards in Public Life The House of Commons: the slow erosion of self-regulation The expenses crisis: statutory regulation and its difficulties The House of Lords and reluctant reform Regulation at the centre of government: the Ministerial Code Whitehall wars: protecting civil-service impartiality Regulating the after-life: ministers, civil servants and revolving doors Getting to grips with lobbying: regulated office-holders, unregulated lobbies Party funding: ambitious architecture, flawed rules Integrity issues in local government: the rise and fall of the Standards Board for England Integrity issues and devolution Conclusions: higher standards, lower credibility? Select bibliography Index