Standards for standards, and whether we need to revisit councillor conduct

Posted on 19/08/2016 by Ed Hammond | governance and scrutiny, standards

It’s over five years now since the abolition of Standards for England (formerly known as the Standards Board). My first encounter with it was the faintly surreal training video which the Board produced way back in its early days. Connoisseurs will recall that it starred the actor Andrew Hall (he played one of Wendy Craig's sons in the Carla Lane sitcom "Butterflies") in an incidental role as a particularly difficult councillor.As depicted in that video, in some councils heated political debate could often lead to threats that behaviour and activity would be referred to the Standards Board for action. Perhaps it ...