Scrap Standards Board, Teather says
The body responsible for maintaining standards in public life has itself been discredited and should be scrapped, the Liberal Democrats said today.
Local government spokeswoman Sarah Teather accepted that there must be high standards among councillors but the current system is untenable.
The Standards Board for England was set up in March 2001 with the mandate of investigating complaints against elected and co-opted members of local authorities.
But backing a motion for the abolition of the board at the Lib Dem annual conference in Blackpool today, Ms Teather said it was failing to do its job.
“There must be high standards, but enforcement of those standards should not be on a quasi-legal basis without the safeguards of a legal process,” she said.
“There is no recourse to appeal, except to judicial review or the High Court. Councillors cannot talk about complaints but the press is free to do so with impunity.
“There is no source of money to fight the case, and no recompense for costs or damage to your reputation if found innocent.”
About £9.5 million has so far been spent on investigations where no disciplinary action was taken, Ms Teacher warned, with only seven per cent of the 10,000 complaints made about councillors in the past three years found to be justified.
The conference motion calls for the board to be replaced by a new body with powers to impose penalties akin to those applicable to elected members of assemblies in Northern Ireland, Wales, London and parliaments in Scotland and Westminster.
“The existing system must be abolished. Councillors should be subject to the same checks and balances as MPs, AMs and MSPs, with final accountability at the ballot box,” Ms Teather added.
For a list of Opinion Former fringe events click here.
