Six months in Trump has caved! How to fix dying US/UK democracies w ex-Wiltshire Cllr. Simon Killane

Our Lobbying Portal aims to shine a light on the activities of the thousands of lobbyists-for-hire that operate in the UK, Brussels and, to some extent, Washington. It provides an A-Z of lobbying consultancies and individual lobbyists, detailing specific examples of their work - including deceptive lobbying campaigns - and the so called 'revolving door' between politics and the lobbying industry. For industry-specific lobbying, visit the relevant Powerbase portals (from the homepage or tag cloud).

https://powerbase.info/index.php/Lobbying_Portal

Simon Killane https://www.facebook.com/simon.killane

A strengthened standards system should be a key foundation of a rewired state

12 JUN 2025 Labour has been slow to act on its opposition promises to strengthen the standards system.

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/standards-rewire-state

Keir Starmer has vowed to “rewire the state” – and that, says Hannah White, should be built on a healthy and robust system which governs standards and behaviour in public life

In opposition, Labour was keen to highlight the ethical failures of previous governments and made a number of commitments about improving standards in public life. But as it approaches the end of its first year in office, the government has been criticised for its lack of progress towards delivering on those commitments. Our conference to mark the 30th anniversary of the Nolan principles will consider the challenges facing the standards system in public life, and how the government should strengthen it.
Creating an Ethics and Integrity Commission for the sake of it is not the answer

Labour’s most eye-catching promise in the ethics space was probably its manifesto pledge to create an independent Ethics and Integrity Commission. This has not yet been delivered, but that is probably a good thing.

Establishing such a commission would provide a signal of the importance Starmer’s government attaches to ethical standards in government, but it is unclear what additional functions it would perform – or how it would fit into the already complex patchwork of ethical watchdogs and bodies that has developed over the last three decades, including the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

The IfG’s research has shown that new public bodies need a clear mission and objectives and strong political sponsorship if they are to succeed. Establishing a quango simply to send a political signal is always a bad idea, and introducing a new ethical standards body without a clear purpose into an already fragmented landscape – one which is is often criticised for being confusing and difficult to navigate – would be worse. Given that the prime minister has been making trenchant arguments about quangos adding regulatory burdens and complexity to the wider public sector, launching one now would seem particularly perverse.

If the government still intends to create the EIC, it needs to be very clear about how it will interact with the existing landscape and add value, rather than duplicate or further confuse what is already there.
Related content
The Nolan Principles at 30: What does the future hold for standards in public life?
But the standards system still needs to be strengthened

The UK’s system of standards in public life still needs bolstering. Keir Starmer has already taken some steps, by empowering his independent ethics adviser, updating the ministerial code and setting a high bar for his ministers’ behaviour. But there is much more that the government could do – including clarifying and enforcing existing rules and reinforce existing bodies. Priorities should include improving transparency around the lobbying of ministers and enforcing the rules on post-government jobs. The shortcomings of the standards system highlighted by the Johnson government’s willingness to depart from uncodified norms and precedents demonstrated there are areas where further underpinning legislation could be beneficial.

Of course, tightening up the rules and the law will never be enough for any government to stay on the right side of public opinion, as shown by the rows over ‘freebiegate’ in the early months of the Labour government. As Keir Starmer’s update to the ministerial code set out, many ethical questions are “primarily a matter of judgement” and people in government need to be confident in using their judgment as well as their political nous to think about how their actions may look to the public.
High standards will help deliver the government’s priorities

Maintaining standards should not just be a government priority for its own sake. Ethics and delivery are closely intertwined. Dealing with ethical scandals distracts ministers and the prime minister from focusing on their priorities but, more significantly, public servants acting in accordance with the Seven Principles of Public Life (also known as the ‘Nolan principles’) are more likely to deliver successfully on those government priorities....