Nolan Principles what is the point if you do not enforce them ?

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Dear Committee on Standards in Public Life,

Nolan Principles what is the point if you do not enforce them ?

Can you please confirm whether or not all public office holders being those that are being paid to provide a service are required to follow the Nolan Principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honestly, leadership ?

Are the Nolan Ptinciples enforceable and if so by what department ?

Yours faithfully,

Mr. Powell

FOI Team Mailbox,

Dear Mr Powell
You request regarding the Nolan principles is being responded to as
correspondence outside of the FOI Act. You should receive a reply from the
Policy Unit responsible very shortly
Regards

FOI Team

Room 405

70 Whitehall,

London, SW1A 2AS

E-mail -[1][email address

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Public Standards Mailbox, Committee on Standards in Public Life

Dear Mr Powell,

The role of the Committee on Standards in Public Life is to advise on
ethical issues relating to standards in public life and to make
recommendations where necessary. It does not fall within our remit,
however, to comment on, investigate or suggest sanctions for individual
cases.

 

The Principles are applicable for all public office holders, and are
applied by the relevant regulator. For example, complaints concerning
Members of Parliament should be directed to Parliamentary Commissioner for
Standards. They will investigate each complaint and decide on the suitable
outcome. Complaints concerning local government officials, such as local
councillors, should be directed to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Kind regards,

Paul Croney

Paul Croney

Governance and Communications Coordinator

Committee on Standards in Public Life

P: 020 7271 2948

E: [1][email address]

Follow us on Twitter @PublicStandards

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Dear Public Standards Mailbox,

Can you at least tell me if councils and their staff are following the Nolan Principles if they are continually farming out work to "middlemen" such as Maidstone Borough Council who are unfortunaytely vague when answering FOI requests.

How can a council who has it's own joint local legal services (Swale Borough Council ) allow a member of staff to instruct a London based firm of solicitors (hardly local to Maidstone and basically a middleman and without putting the work out to tender to local firms) to further instruct a second middleman (London Agency) who do not send its own staff but instead self employed advocates/solicitors agents just another third middlemen ?

Is this so that there is no connection to Maidstone Borough Council and why would the council also need to send the instructing member of staff along "informally" surely council staff should be able to trust who they are contracting work out to who should not need babysitting or are they just there to gloat?

Do you have any policy or law that confirms if this is following the seven Nolan Principles as it does not appear to be in the best interests of the public but in the best interests of the council staff who are now acting as Head of Revenues and Benefits ?

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Powell

Public Standards Mailbox, Committee on Standards in Public Life

Dear Mr Powell,
Thank you for your follow up email. 
Unfortunately the issues you raise still fall under the category of an
individual case and not the remit of the Committee, as outlined by our
colleague's previous email. 
Should you wish to make a complaint regarding this particular council we
would recommend you contact the Local Government Ombudsman via the
following link:
[1]http://www.lgo.org.uk/
We are sorry we cannot be of more help to you on the matter. 
Many thanks and best wishes,
Committee on Standards in Public Life Secretariat

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