The FDA’s motion on standards in public life passed with overwhelming support at this year’s TUC Congress.

Moving the motion, FDA Vice President Margaret Haig urged colleagues from across the union movement to “remind people that we still care about the Nolan principles, we will hold people to them, and find ways to ensure that they persist into the future”.

The FDA’s Motion 64 called on Congress to ‘recognises that maintaining the highest standards in public life is the bedrock of our democracy, our economic success, our foreign policy, and is crucial to maintaining confidence in our public institutions’.

It also welcomed the Labour Party’s commitment to establish a new ethics and integrity commission, which will assume responsibilities over the Ministerial Code and Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, and called on the TUC General Council to engage with the Labour party on their proposals to ensure that:

i. there is a consistent approach to the enforcement of standards across the public sector

ii. independence of regulatory bodies is enhanced, and appointments are made without political interference

iii. investigations, determinations, and punishments are determined, and seen to be determined, independently.

“We have seen some pretty astonishing behaviour from people who have control in the highest echelons of our country, who seem to have forgotten – or even consciously set aside – these principles,” Haig told delegates. “If their first response is to blame someone else, they have forgotten accountability. If they lie about what they knew and when, they have forgotten integrity and honesty. If they fall back on the excuse of pressurised workplaces leading to bullying behaviour, they have forgotten about the need for leadership.”

The FDA Vice President stressed that “this is why we need a standards reset for everyone in public life, whether for Ministers in Government, local councillors, or anyone in between”.

“The FDA has consistently called for better consideration of ethics and standards with previous and current Prime Ministers, but it has fallen on deaf ears because ‘they know best’,” she added.

Reflecting on her own roles as a school governor and trustee of a small charity, Haig said that the Nolan principles help her think of questions and check her own biases and remind her that her role is “about public good, and not private gain”.

“The Nolan principles form a good list. That list has stood for almost 30 years as a benchmark for public life. In our public service roles, we may not always meet them to the full degree, but we strive towards them. Is it too much to ask that others in public life do the same?”