13 February 2009
By Alex Klaushofer
The head of the standards watchdog has come under fire for failing to tackle headline-hitting issues.
MPs at the public administration select committee this week criticised Sir Christopher Kelly – who became chair of the Committee for Standards in Public Life a year ago – for not doing more to address issues raised about MPs’ expenses and cash-for-laws allegations in the Lords.
PASC chair Tony Wright suggested that Kelly had been the ‘absent voice at these big critical moments’, ignoring ‘raging issues to do with the integrity of public life’.
He added: ‘I’d have thought these raised quite central standards issues, and that a committee set up to worry about them would worry about them.’
This week the parliamentary standards watchdog, John Lyon, dismissed a complaint that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had breached parliamentary rules in claiming £116,000 for her second home while living with her sister in London.
MPs suggested that concern about the issue might be allayed if Kelly recommended a review of the rules on second homes.
‘If the public thinks it wants the rules to be changed, if you’re not going to bring it about, who is?’ asked Wright.
But Kelly said that he did not think the issue should be dealt with in isolation. He added: ‘There is a wider range of issues about how politicians are supported to do their jobs which would benefit from a proper inquiry, not necessarily done by us.’
He rejected suggestions that his committee should launch an inquiry into MPs’ allowances.
Kelly told the MPs that his committee was disappointed with public bodies’ progress on making their whistle-blowing policies clear.
Standards committee member Brian Woods-Scawen said he thought a further duty should be imposed on organisations’ leadership.
‘And that is, in annual reports to confirm that the board, or whatever the leadership body of the organisation is, has reviewed and is satisfied with the whistle-blowing arrangements in that organisation,’ he said.
‘Added pressure has got to be put on senior management to take it more seriously.’
PFfeb2009
