Code of conduct


In October 2008 the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) issued a consultation paper on further improvements to the ethical framework in local government.

Communities in control: Real people, real power - Codes of conduct for local authority members and employees deals with some suggested improvements to the members code of conduct and the latest proposals regarding the implementation of the long proposed employee code of conduct.

The consultation closed on 24 December 2008.

The consultation addressed some old questions and some new questions which have not been considered fully before. There were questions about the need for a code and who it should apply to:

  •  Is a statutory code needed?
  •  If so which employees should it apply to?
  •  Should there be a two tier approach with more stringent standards for senior officers?
  •  If so how would the senior officer group be defined?

These were followed by more technical questions about the wording of the provisions which are set out in a draft code, such as whether the provisions are appropriate generally, plus more specific consideration of the approach to be taken in respect of the registration of interests, which interests to register, whether the register should be public, etc.

The LGA consulted authorities and produced a response addressing both aspects of the member and employee code.

 

The government are currently considering responses received and have not yet made any further proposals in respect of the employee code.

Background

The public is entitled to expect the highest standards of conduct from all employees who work for local government. The Employment Relations Unit published 'Code of Conduct for Local Government Employees' in 1994. This publication outlined existing laws, regulations and conditions of service and provided guidance designed to assist local authorities in the development of their own voluntary local codes of conduct. Most have since implemented such codes.

However, the government has for some time taken the view that a statutory code of conduct for local government employees should be implemented similar to the statutory code of conduct which applies to elected members of local authorities. Section 82 of the Local Government Act 2000, provided the Secretary of State with the power to issue a statutory code of conduct for employees of local authorities in England, and the National Assembly for Wales with the power to issue a code for employees of local authorities in Wales. In the case of police authorities the 'English' code will apply to police authorities in both England and Wales. The LGA, the Employers' Organisation (EO) and the public sector unions established a working party to assist with this work and made proposals in November 2000.

The National Assembly of Wales' code of conduct was introduced in 2001, with the exclusion of teachers and firefighters.

Progress was slower in England but, in July 2004, the ODPM issued a consultation paper on a draft code of conduct. The intention was that the statutory code would be a brief statement of core values and obligations. This would underpin local codes of conduct, which will remain of great importance in communicating appropriate standards and procedures.

The proposed statutory code will be deemed into employees' contracts of employment and any breaches of the code will be dealt with under an authority's local disciplinary procedures. There will be no other investigation or enforcement mechanism such as applies in cases of misconduct by councillors.

The exact coverage of the code is not yet fully resolved. The draft proposed that, as in Wales, it will apply to all local government employees except for school teachers and firefighters. However, the consultation paper raised a number of questions as to whether it was the correct approach to exclude these groups of employees, as well as a number of others, such as community support officers, school support staff, political assistants and council managers.

The consultation ended on 19 November 2004. The EO consulted authorities and submitted a response on their behalf.

EO response to the draft statutory code of conduct for local government employees

In December 2005, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) published a paper on the future of the conduct regime for local government in England, Standards of Conduct in English Local Government: The Future.

The paper confirmed the government's intention to proceed with a statutory code of conduct for local government employees but offered no firm indication of when this was likely to take place. It stated that further consideration of the content of the employee code would be needed to take into account the lessons learned from the operation of the code of conduct for members, and any subsequent amendments following the Standards Board review.