Councillors' Code of Conduct: analysis of consultation responses

1. Introduction

1.1 This report presents the findings of an analysis of written responses to a Scottish Government consultation on making amendments to sections 5 and 7 of the Councillors' Code of Conduct. The consultation was published on 12 December 2016 and ran until 20 March 2017. ^[2]

Background

1.2 Section 1 of the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Act 2000 requires the Scottish Ministers to issue a code of conduct for councillors. The aim of the Code is to set out clearly and openly the standards that councillors must comply with when carrying out their Council duties. All local authority councillors in Scotland are obliged to comply with the Code and with any guidance on the Code issued by the Standards Commission for Scotland. The current version of the Code was issued in 2010. The current Guidance was issued in 2015.

1.3 The Scottish Government has been asked to consider making changes to the Code to address a specific issue relating to Sections 5 and 7 on declarations of interest in connection with quasi-judicial or regulatory matters ^[3] . The purpose of the consultation was to seek views on whether such changes should be made, and if so what form changes should take.

About the consultation and analysis

1.4 The consultation contained six questions, two closed (tick-box) questions and four open questions which invited expanded comment. The questions are summarised in Annex 1.

1.5 Both quantitative and qualitative analysis were undertaken in relation to the responses received, with the emphasis on exploring the range of views of respondents as presented in the qualitative comments submitted.

1.6 The analysis in this report is based on the responses submitted to the consultation. It is important to note that, given the self-selected nature of the respondents, the views presented here should not be seen as representative of the views of the wider population.