Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Bone Excerpts

Thursday 10th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Dr John Pugh (Southport) (LD)]

6. What steps he plans to take to abolish the Standards Board for England.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

14. What steps he plans to take to abolish the Standards Board for England.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Andrew Stunell)]

We shall be abolishing the Standards Board for England. The necessary legislation will be in our localism Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech.

[Andrew Stunell]

I thank my hon. Friend for his welcome. He is right that a safety net is needed, and we are in discussion with our local government colleagues about the most appropriate way of moving forward.

[Mr Bone]

Is the Minister aware that he is going to become the pin-up boy for every councillor in the country, and receive an enormous amount of fan mail? Will he ensure that the abolition takes place as soon as possible?

[Andrew Stunell]

I would like to claim that, for my Liberal Democrat colleagues, I already was, but I am happy to be so for others as well.

Around the country, there are councillors of every political persuasion deeply frustrated by the fact that the Standards Board remains a burden and a threat to them. It costs £7.8 million, but it dealt with only 1,000 real complaints last year, which is £7,800 per complaint. The sooner we get rid of it, the better. That will be done on a statutory basis through the decentralisation and localism Bill.