NEW CODE OF CONDUCT PASSED AT ASSEMBLY
DUP member of the NI Assembly Standards and Privileges Committee Alastair Ross MLA has said that the new revised Members Code of Conduct couldn’t come at a better time, and that the code will be kept under review as changes are made elsewhere.
The new Code requires MLA’s to declare if they employ family members, if they have any outside earnings and if they belong to any bodies that may impact upon their role as an MLA.
Commenting after the debate this morning, Mr Ross said,
“The new House of Commons Speaker John Bercow MP last night said that politics in the United Kingdom had been severely damaged, but that he recognised that the vast majority of politicians are not there to feather their own nests, but rather to represent their constituents.
Whilst this is undoubtedly also the case at Stormont, and whereas issues around Second Homes Allowances simply do not apply to the Northern Ireland Assembly, it is true to say that the reputations of all politicians have been damaged as a result of the ongoing expenses story.
Although many of the opportunities to exploit the system do not exist at Stormont, we have nevertheless revised many features of our own code to increase transparency and accountability and rebuild some of the public trust that has been lost over the past few months. This has been a piece of work that our committee has been actively engaged in for nearly two years to get to this point.
The Assembly’s new code of conduct will require Members to declare if they employ any family members, or the family members of other MLA’s, to declare any outside earnings and how long they spend doing other jobs, and allows for stricter sanctions against Members found to be in breach of the Code.
This new Code strikes the right balance between ensuring that MLA’s are measured in their comments yet without impinging on freedom of speech.
It is important that Members recognise that they will be under increased scrutiny, and I welcome the unanimous support for the new code, and steps that have already been taken by other Assembly bodies to increase accountability around office finances and the use of Assembly resources.
We now must monitor changes that are being introduced in other legislatures and ensure that our code remains up to date and robust, and that ultimately that politicians are held to account for their actions.”
