Ethical standards officers
What is an ethical standards officer?
An ethical standards officer is someone empowered by the Local Government Act 2000 to investigate allegations referred to them by the Standards Board for England that a member or co-opted member of a relevant authority in England has failed to comply with his or her authority's Code of Conduct. Ethical standards officers conduct each investigation impartially and decide whether the allegation should be referred for a hearing or not. The ethical standards officer may also decide that there has not been a breach of the Code of Conduct or may ask the authority’s monitoring officer to take some action instead of investigation, such as training, reviewing procedures or conflict resolution.
How will an ethical standards officer conduct the investigation?
The ethical standards officer decides the appropriate way to investigate an allegation. This depends upon the circumstances of each individual case. However, we conform with good practice in relation to the planning and conduct of investigations and these notes set out our usual practice.
What can the ethical standards officer investigate?
The ethical standards officer will specifically investigate the allegations referred to him or her by the Standards Board for England. In addition, Section 59(1)(b) of the Local Government Act 2000 gives the ethical standards officer the power to investigate other matters which may amount to a breach of the Code of Conduct that come to his or her attention during the course of an investigation.
Download
You can download the Standards for England investigation guidelines as a PDF file below
A guide to our investigations process
Ethical standards officer
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