Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of sanctions available to local government standards committees for the actions of town and parish councillors.

In December the Government launched a consultation seeking views on a range of measures to strengthen the standards and conduct framework that applies to all types and tiers of local authorities in England. The proposals consulted upon included a requirement for all principal authorities to convene formal standards committees to make decisions on code of conduct breaches, and the introduction of suspension of members for serious misconduct. We are now in the process of analysing the responses to the consultation to ensure we are taking full account of sector views on all of the measures proposed, and the Government Response will be issued in due course.