Standards in public life : first report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life / Chairman, Lord Nolan ; presented to Parliament by the Prime Minister by Command of Her Majesty, May 1995.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Standards in Public Life.
Date:
1995
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Standards in public life : first report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life / Chairman, Lord Nolan ; presented to Parliament by the Prime Minister by Command of Her Majesty, May 1995. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Public Perception 1. The House of Commons is at the heart of our democracy. The standards of conduct observed by its Members are crucially important to the political well-being of the nation. Those standards have always been self-imposed and self-regulated because Parliament is our supreme institution. 2. It is vital for the quality of Government, for the effective scrutiny of Government, and for the democratic process, that Members of Parliament should maintain the highest standards of propriety in discharging their obligations to the public which elects them. It is also essential for public confidence that they should be seen to do so. 3. In recent years the confidence of the public in politicians has declined sharply. Our first witness, Professor Ivor Crewe, told us that: ‘Whenever surveys have asked people to compare various occupations for honesty or trustworthiness or a moral example, Members of Parliament have been at or near the bottom of the league, competing with estate agents and journalists to avoid the wooden spoon.’ 4. He went on to mention a recent Gallup survey result that 64% of the public agreed that ‘most MPs make a lot of money by using public office improperly’, a figure which has risen from 46% nine years ago. The same survey found that 77% of people believed that ‘MPs care more about special interests than about people like themselves’, while only 28% agreed that ‘ most MPs have a high personal moral code’. 5. Such figures must be treated with caution. On the suggestion that most Members of Parliament make a lot of money from using public office improperly, Professor Crewe told us ‘I myself do not believe that for one moment’. Professor Crewe also told us that constituents would normally take a different view of their own Member. Iain Duncan-Smith MP, among others, agreed. He said: As politicians generally we are rated fairly low in people’s regard |but] often you find that regard for an individual MP puts them high in the list of public perception within {the constituency] ’. 6. There is no evidence either of a growth in actual corruption. When asked whether it was the considered judgement of the Metropolitan police that, whatever the problems with Members of Parliament accepting payment for lobbying services, these did not extend to corruption in the legal sense, Assistant Commissioner David Veness replied ‘As of now that is correct.’ 7. John Witherow, Editor of ‘The Sunday Times’, and Peter Preston, Editor in Chief of ‘The Guardian’, both told us that they would not agree with the view that most Members were ‘in it for the money’, but nevertheless felt that public cynicism created a real problem. Not surprisingly, they took the view that this was Parliament’s own fault, rather than the