Measuring the Impact of the Committee for Standards in Public Life

Abstract

This article assesses the impact of the UK’s Committee for Standards in Public Life (CSPL) in six key
areas of political and public service: Ministers and the Executive, Members of Parliament, the House of
Lords, local government, Non-Departmental Public Bodies, and electoral reform. It will argue that the CSPL
has had a demonstrable impact in terms of the number of recommendations that have been turned into
legislation and also the number other standards and ethics agencies that have subsequently arisen within
the UK. It will also suggest, however, that standards problems do remain, and that the CSPL’s impact on
public perception of standards has been somewhat less positive.