Standards for England oversees the Code of Conduct, which covers elected and co-opted members who serve on a range of authorities. Standards for England maintains an independent national overview of local investigations into allegations that members' conduct may have fallen short of the required standards.
Standards for England can investigate allegations itself. It cannot impose sanctions on members, but if it considers that further action is required, it refers cases to the Adjudication Panel for England, or to the relevant authority's own standards committee.
Standards committees can suspend members for up to six months. The Adjudication Panel can disqualify members for up to five years.
Standards for England works with the following types of authority and their members: parish councils; district, city or borough councils; county councils; the City of London Corporation; fire and rescue authorities; police authorities; passenger transport authorities; national park authorities; the Broads Authority and The Greater London Authority.
Standards for England gives standards committees and councillors support and guidance on understanding the Code of Conduct, and on how to deal with complaints about the conduct of members of their Council or authority. They monitor the performance of local authorities in the local assessment of complaints; publish information about how Councils and other authorities are dealing with complaints about their members; work with standards committees to help them improve, if they do not deal with complaints about their members properly. The SfE can remove the power of the standards committees to receive complaints about their members, if they believe it necessary. They can investigate the most serious cases, where the local standards committee believes it is not best placed to deal with the matter.
Currently, the Chief Executive of Standards for England is Glenys Stacey. Its chair is Dr Robert Chilton. Contact them at:
Standards for England
4th Floor
Griffin House
40 Lever Street
Manchester M1 1BB
General enquiries:
Telephone: 0845 078 8181
Fax: 0161 817 5499
Minicom: 0161 817 5449
Email: enquiries@standardsforengland.gov.uk
Website: http://www.standardsforengland.gov.uk/
Monitoring officer enquiries
Telephone: 0161 817 5405
Email: legal.enquiries@standardsforengland.gov.uk
