10 March 2006
The public probity watchdog will continue to push for changes in the way allegations of ministerial misdemeanours are investigated, it emerged this week.
Sir Alistair Graham, chair of the influential Committee on Standards in Public Life, said he was surprised the prime minister had not already introduced a more sensible way of investigating alleged breaches of the ministerial code.
Speaking at the committee's first open annual meeting in London on March 9, he said: 'At regular intervals [Tony Blair] has been faced with allegations of breaches of the ministerial code in which he and his government have become the centre of a media storm. This leads to immense pressure on a minister whose future will often depend on the vagaries of an ad hoc investigation.'
Graham said the code should be amended to include a clear procedure for independent investigation of an allegation culminating in a published report, although the final decision over a minister's future would continue to rest with the prime minister.
The committee first made these recommendations in 2003 but the controversy surrounding the conduct of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and her husband David Mills has brought them back to the fore.
Graham will also be reviewing the Seven Principles of Public Life, introduced by the committee in 1995.
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