Special: Sunak’s ethics plan

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After two years of ethical scandals, the government finally published its plans to clean up standards just before parliament went into recess. We’ll dive into the detail to find out what Sunak will be changing and how the rules around ministers, civil servants and other government employees are upheld – and what isn’t going to change after all. We’ll be joined by Fleur Anderson MP, John Penrose MP and Dr Susan Hawley from Spotlight on Corruption to look at the government’s proposals, how they compare with the various independent reviews into government ethics, find out where the gaps are and ask what else might need to change in the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this special episode of Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for
0:14.5	Government. I'm Tim Durant, today's host. The by-elections were the big political story of last
0:20.0	week, but in amongst the announcements
0:22.7	on Thursday of various government publications being released before Parliament shut down for recess,
0:27.7	there was one eagerly anticipated document.
0:30.6	The long-awaited government response to a report in November 2021 from the Committee on Standards
0:35.9	in Public Life, which set out how the government would
0:38.3	improve ethics and integrity in its work. The response also covered reports from the public
0:43.7	administration and constitutional affairs committee, and Nigel Bordman, the lawyer who was asked
0:48.4	to investigate ethics and government after the Greensill lobbying scandal. It all feels a long time
0:53.7	ago now, but 2021 and 2022 seemed like they were full of never-ending scandals in government.
0:59.0	From lobbying, from David Cameron and Owen Patterson, to Suella Braverman's leak of classified documents,
1:04.0	wallpaper gate, party gate, and plenty of other gates.
1:08.0	Labour has been pressing the government on this issue and the repeated scandals,
1:11.6	particularly under Boris Johnson's leadership, have surely been part of the reason for the Labour lead in the polls.
1:16.6	So, last week the government attempted to turn the page and set out how it is going to clean up its act and uphold standards and ethics.
1:24.6	And we're here to get into the details of it, to see where they've been
1:27.5	ambitious, where they've been more cautious, and how this agenda might develop in the coming
1:31.5	months. I'm delighted to be joined by a great panel to discuss all of this. Fleur Anderson, Labour MP
1:37.2	for Putney and Shadow Paymaster General. Hi, Fleur. Hello. Thanks for having me on. John Penrose,
1:42.6	Conservative MP for Western Supermare and the former Prime Minister's
1:45.3	Anti-Corruption Champion. Hi, John. Hi, glad to be here. And Dr Sue Hawley, Executive Director
	...

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