Page 3443 - Week 11 - Thursday, 19 September 2013
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was asked to investigate. At the time, as the Speaker, I felt that that was a good recommendation, and that we look closely at the text, because the Assembly has had a code of conduct since 2005 and these sorts of documents do warrant a re-examination and consideration from time to time as to whether they are up to date and whether they accurately reflect the expectations and the desires of the members of the Assembly at a given time.
The code of conduct is an important statement of the values and integrity that the members of this place should uphold. We do have an expectation on us from the community that we are operating to the highest standards; the code of conduct, contained in the standing orders, is a way of members of the Assembly expressing that, of being clear with ourselves and each other about how we define those expectations, how we define those standards. And it is also about being transparent with the community, should they seek to read that code of conduct, as to what the standards are that we are seeking to operate to.
After Ron McLeod made that recommendation, a review of the code of conduct was undertaken by Stephen Skehill, the Assembly’s ethics and integrity adviser. He reported back to me, as the Speaker in the last term, on 31 July 2012. After that, a revised draft was taken to the administration and procedures committee, and that committee looked at the code of conduct. There has been discussion and there has been some amendment to come up with a document that we can all agree to. It is important that a document such as this has the unanimous support of the Assembly, because all of us, in having that motion on the table, should be comfortable and feel it is a document that we are willing to sign up to.
That is the context in which I think it is also useful to refresh the previous code of conduct to make sure that those members who are now members of the Assembly support the text, understand the text and believe the text reflects current expectations and practices—as opposed to, perhaps, those members who wrote it when it was introduced back in 2005.
As part of this process, I have been working on the introduction of a commissioner for standards. This code of conduct sits adjacent to that issue of the commissioner for standards. That was also included in the recommendations from Mr Skehill. There is some more work to do on that, and that will not be brought forward today. I hope to be able to bring that forward during the next sitting, as we continue to work on some of those details. I was recently provided with some new comments from my colleagues in the Assembly, and I welcome that engagement on the text. It is important that we get it right, but it is also a good initiative to be carrying forward.
I understand that today, when it comes to the code, there may well be some last-minute amendments and that we may be adjourning. So perhaps we will not get this matter finished today. I am unsure why this is the case, given that we have been talking about this for some time and that at admin and procedures on Tuesday I thought we were ready to go.
Nonetheless, as I have observed, I think it is important that members feel comfortable with this; that we have a document that all members can ascribe to; and that then,
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