Clause 2
Planning
6:45 pm
Jacqui Lait (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Beckenham, Conservative)
Indeed, he made them from a great position of expertise and we will rely on that long after he ceases to be a member of the Greater London authority, following the London elections. However, because of the question that he raised and that the Minister responded to, the subject of the code of conduct emerged from that exchange. That reinforced my interest in why the code is being written by the commission. If I can put it in a somewhat more theoretical context, the commission is made up of people of various expertise, we hope, having extracted that from the Minister in today’s debate.
We have not really debated, but we have expressed concerns about conflicts of interest. While I would not, in any way, shape or form, impugn the honour of any commissioners, the chairman or the staff of the commission, who would probably draft the code of conduct, I would like to know whether the Minister has any concerns about the code. Will it too be open to scrutiny and legal challenge should the commission make a decision that is unpopular? Will it be reassuring to those who might be concerned about the commission’s conduct in a particular inquiry that the Secretary of State had signed off or been a signatory to, or had developed the code along with the commission? If the Minister can reassure me along those lines, I am absolutely certain that we shall withdraw the amendment.