Subordinate Legislation Committee, 27 Nov 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Official Report 120KB pdf

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Codes of Conduct

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Standards in Public Life Code of Conduct: Councillors' Code (SE/2001/50)

No points arise on the code.

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Standards in Public Life Code of Conduct: Members' Model Code (SE/2001/51)

The code is for quango people. As Bristow Muldoon pointed out, the firm intention might have been that the code of conduct for members of public bodies should be exactly the same as the code of conduct for members of local authorities.

I was a member of the Local Government Committee at the time that the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Act 2000 was drawn up. There was a strong desire that consistent standards should apply to people working in local authorities and people operating in other public bodies, such as quangos.

Under section 2(6) of the act, there is a power for ministers to make a distinction between which parts of the code are mandatory and which parts are optional for people working in other public bodies. The Executive has not defined which parts of the draft code of conduct are mandatory and which parts are discretionary. We should ask the Executive to clarify that point. The intention may be that the whole code is mandatory, but we need clarification on whether that is the case.

I agree. The clerk will write to the Executive to seek clarification of that.

There are typographical errors in the code, which we can mention in passing.