Watchdog urges Levelling Up Secretary to rethink position on local government standards, citing “clear frustration” within councils at limited powers to tackle poor behaviour

The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) has called on the Government to reconsider its position on the powers of local authorities to sanction councillors for poor behaviour.

In March this year the Government rejected a recommendation by the standards watchdog in its 2019 Local Government Ethical Standards report that local authorities should be able to suspend councillors without allowances for up to six months for breaches of the code of conduct.

The report had also recommended that councillors be given the right to appeal to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if their local authority imposed a period of suspension. The Ombudsman would have been given the power to investigate the allegation and impose a binding decision on the council.

However, in its formal response the Government said: “There is no provision in current legislation for a sanction to suspend a councillor found to have breached the code of conduct, and this was a deliberate policy decision by the Coalition Government at the time of the Localism Act 2011 to differentiate from the previous, failed Standards Board regime. The Standards Board regime allowed politically motivated and vexatious complaints and had a chilling effect on free speech within local government. These proposals would effectively reinstate that flawed regime.”

In a letter to Levelling Up Secretary, Simon Clarke (pictured), this week (20 October), the CSPL’s chair, Lord Evans, said: “While we note the government’s commitment to further work to support local government, the Committee is very disappointed that many of its careful recommendations have not been accepted. We aimed in that report to produce a balanced, considered package of recommendations to strengthen the arrangements in place whilst respecting the benefits of a localised approach.

“It was clear from our evidence that the sector backed our call to strengthen the arrangements in place to support high ethical standards. There is clear frustration within local authorities at the limited powers within the local government standards regime to address poor behaviour by a minority of individuals.”

Lord Evans urged the Secretary of State to reconsider the Committee’s recommendations, adding that it “would welcome a conversation with you to understand how you are taking forward the government’s stated aim to work with local authorities and their representative organisations to ensure that local government is supported in reinforcing its reputation for ethical local standards”.

He added: “Across all tiers of local government, decisions are taken about a wide range of local services using public funds, so it is important that there are robust governance arrangements that command public confidence.”

In July the chair of Camden Council’s Standards Committee wrote to the CSPL to note that the Government’s decision not to implement the watchdog’s recommendations on sanctions had left the local government standards regime with very few powers at a local level.

“In effect, the most severe sanction available to local authorities is a finding of a breach of the Code of Conduct. While in councils such as Camden with already high standards, group discipline and close media scrutiny, this does not have any detrimental effect, in other councils without such controls councillors who have behaved very badly will remain in office,” Cllr Richard Cotton said.