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Mr Moore makes the point that much of this is already covered by the law. Yes, it is. Much of it is also covered by longstanding convention - for example, the early sections that talk about Cabinet responsibility. These are not matters that are set down in the law anywhere, but they are clearly understood. As a matter of longstanding British Westminster convention, there are standards of behaviour expected of members of an Executive. They have not been set down in a code before. I think it is interesting that this Government has chosen to pull all that together and put it into a document so that there is no doubt in the minds of the members of this Assembly and our staffers or anybody out there who cares to read it that there are some standards of behaviour that this Government believes in and intends to put into practice. How could anybody say that that is a bad thing? The document itself is informative, and it sets down reasonable standards of behaviour.

I accept that it could perhaps go further. If members of the Assembly believe that it should, if they believe that there are other aspects of human behaviour that should be in it but have been omitted, it is up to them to put forward to the Government a proposal that new information be included in it. People may believe that it should be extended to people other than those to whom it specifically relates now. It is the responsibility of every one of us to say to the Government, “We think that the document should go further. It should be revised and it should be added to”. I, for one, could be quite happy to consider this document carefully. If I believe that it is lacking in any respect, believe me, I will be putting it to the Chief Minister that additional information, additional provisions, should go in there. I would expect that every member sitting in this Assembly would do the same. Mr Speaker, I believe that it is a worthy document. I believe that it is a worthwhile document. Rather than criticise it, I think that we should be looking at it constructively.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (3.48), in reply: Mr Speaker, just to conclude the debate and to respond to Mr Moore: Yes, this is a living document. Yes, it is a document that was put together in a fairly brief period of time after we took office because we believed that there needed to be a first step in this area. We are in no way suggesting that this document is set in stone forever. But in five weeks we put in writing something that was certainly a step ahead of what we had in the past, put on paper something that this Assembly could work with and add to. We would be very happy to have input to this document from any member of this Assembly. We would also be very interested if it were felt, as the previous Chief Minister has said, that this document could be expanded or could be used for every member of this Assembly. If Ms Follett is going to bring forward a code of conduct for all members of the Assembly, we would be very supportive of that - unlike, it seems, their approach to this document.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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