Calls to scrap the Standards Board for England have been made again, following its annual review launch. Highlighting a review of the code of conduct for members and reduced complaint assessment time has failed to silence critics. Local government shadow secretary, Eric Pickles, described the board as a ‘colossal waste of time’. ‘The Standards Board has done nothing to increase standing in public life or tackle corruption,’ he told The MJ. ‘I look forward to the day when we can abolish the board. It has been a colossal waste of money and a poor experience all round.’ The review also calls for more decisions to be made at the local level, with greater responsibility for council’s standards committees and monitoring officers. It recommends that standards committees are given new powers – yet to be defined – to impose higher penalties with a structure of training put in place to support them. But the LGA warned local level conflicts of interest problems must still be ‘ironed out’.
