Creating codes of conduct for the government’s Hillsborough Law will be one of the newly-formed Ethics and Integrity Commission’s key initial responsibilities, its chair Douglas Chalmers has said.
More formally known as the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill, the Hillsborough Law is currently in its second reading in the House of Commons. It will create a statutory duty of candour on public bodies and officials, requiring them to be transparent, honest and frank in inquiries and investigations.
Chalmers said in a blog published yesterday that the prime minister has asked the EIC to focus on creating duty of candour codes. The commission will look at “how public bodies can develop, distribute and enforce such codes so that they effect meaningful cultural change, ensuring public officials act with honesty, integrity and candour at all times”.
The creation of the codes will be a “substantial piece of work” for the commission, Chalmers said. “We aim to build a centre of excellence for this work – a place where organisations can go to find and share good practice and benefit from a consistent approach to standards”.
Chalmers referred to “the litany of public service failures like Windrush, Grenfell, Infected Blood and the Horizon IT scandals”, saying that these have caused “awful damage” to public trust in our institutions. He said that “pressures and uncertainty” can sometimes make it difficult for public servants to do their jobs well and in the right way.
“When expectations aren’t clear or processes fall behind, issues can arise… and grow,” he said.
Chalmers added that he wants the commission to “support codes and ethics discussions so that they become a normal and confident part of workplace culture, not just documents that sit in a file or on a wall somewhere”.
Codes for the new duty of candour will be one of the first areas of focus for the new commission, which replaces the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Its establishment was a Labour party manifesto pledge in last year’s general election.
The EIC is charged with playing a more visible and strategic role across the public sector than its predecessor. “We will take an evidence-based and constructive approach, focused on what can make a difference rather than adding unnecessary complexity”, Chalmers said.
Chalmers added that standards “aren’t something that can be set once and then left alone”. Technology, services and public expectations continually change, and the systems and guidance supporting ethical behaviour in public life “need to keep pace”, he said.
The EIC chair also noted that while the seven principles of public life are widely recognised across the public sector, there is more work to be done on making sure people understand how to apply them in everyday situations such as “communicating openly about decisions, managing relationships with external organisations or considering where the public interest lies in highly complex circumstances that demand compromise”.
Concerns were voiced by anti-corruption organisations when the EIC went live on 13th October, with some warning that the watchdog will not be sufficiently independent from government to protect its credibility and effectiveness.
But Chalmers appeared to refute this point in his blog, saying: “Our independence allows us to take a broad view and speak up where we think strengthening is needed.”
He said that the commission will be sending an annual public report to the prime minister which will set out the health of the standards landscape and where more needs to be done. This annual report “allows us to draw attention to systemic issues and the need for system upgrades”, Chalmers said.
The EIC has published an implementation plan which sets out an 18-24 month plan for the transition of the Committee on Standards in Public Life into the Ethics and Integrity Commission.