News story

Launch of Ethics for Regulators review

Richard Thomas previews the CSPL's report into ethics for regulators, published 15 September 2016.

• From: Committee on Standards in Public Life
• Published: 14 August 2015
• Last updated: 24 May 2016 — See all updates

Richard Thomas​, member of​ the Committee on Standards in Public Life​,​ talks about the committee’s report​ on ethics for regulators.

Regulators play a central role in public life, dealing with a very wide range of commercial and non-market activity at national and local levels. Created to operate in the public interest, their decisions impact on individuals and organisations. Like much of the public sector, regulators face reduced expenditure and unprecedented scrutiny on how they operate. It is critical therefore, that regulators are robustly independent of those they regulate and demonstrate high standards with their own activities and decisions.

The Committee intends to undertake a short review of ‘Ethics for Regulators’ as set out in its 2015-2016 business plan to explore how regulators live up to the 7 principles of public life.

The Committee conducted a ‘health-check’ of the way in which regulators manage ethical issues in their own organisations and the extent to which the unique characteristics of regulators create or demand any specifically tailored ethical solutions. The Committee has asked a wide range of regulatory bodies about their ethical standards, in order to gather evidence for the next steps of the review. The Committee will publish an overview of the issues raised in the Autumn.

Published 14 August 2015
Last updated 24 May 2016 + show all updates

1. 24 May 2016

   Watch Richard Thomas discuss the review into Ethics for Regulators

2. 14 August 2015

   First published.