Nolan Principles
Monday, 2 November 2026
Contributions
Ben Goldsborough (South Norfolk) (Lab)Labour
4. What steps she is taking to ensure local authorities uphold the Nolan principles.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Jim McMahon)Labour (Co-op)
Standards in local government are important. The Localism Act 2011 requires every local authority in England to adopt a code of conduct that conforms to the Nolan principles. The Government are committed to a whole system reform of the local government standards framework to make it stronger and more efficient, including with stronger sanctions, and we will legislate when parliamentary time allows.
Despite concerns, Reform rushed through the appointment of Norfolk county council’s new CEO, Dennis Bacon. Thanks to Councillor Ben Weston, we now know that Mr Bacon hosted senior Reform councillors at his luxury B&B the day before job applications opened. Norfolk Reform has failed on three Nolan principles: selflessness, integrity and objectivity. Does my hon. Friend agree that a slap-up meal should not get someone a £215,000 job?
My hon. Friend raises concerning point. I thank my hon. Friend and Councillor Ben Weston too for highlighting the issue. I obviously cannot get into the specifics of the case—local authorities are independent employers, so individual employment decisions are a matter for them—but I am concerned that there is a pattern of conduct and behaviour in Reform councils that we would not usually find acceptable, and we should not allow it to be normalised.
Lee Anderson (Ashfield) (Reform)Reform UK
Kinver Business Solutions has secured more than £1 million in project management fees from Ashfield district council. It now turns out that one of the project managers is actually the son of the chief executive of Ashfield district council. I thank the Department for arranging an appointment this week, but does the Minister agree that it is time to send the commissioners in to Ashfield district council? There is not a minute to spare.
I know that the hon. Gentleman raised the same point at Prime Minister’s questions last week, and it is clearly concerning. There should not be that type of conflict. I have written to him today, and he should have a copy of the letter in his office. We take such matters seriously. I have asked the Department to conduct an urgent best-value assessment of the local authority. Meetings are taking place with officials and the council’s chief executive to find out exactly what is going on.
Michelle Welsh (Sherwood Forest) (Lab)Labour
I thank the Minister for the intervention that his Department has made with the rapid best-value assessment at Ashfield district council, in response to my representations over the past two months. These are extremely serious allegations, and my constituents in Hucknall have been let down badly by the council. Will the Minister confirm that urgent action is being taken? Can he say what more can be done to prevent further inappropriate decisions, especially on planning? Does he agree that the severity of the allegations warrants a referral to the police for an independent investigation?
My hon. Friend has raised this matter on a number of occasions, and I hope she received a copy of my letter on Friday after raising it further. The issue is very serious. In addition to the points I have made about the rapid best-value review and the conversations taking place with the council’s chief executive, I can also say that our officials will be contacting the external auditor to understand more details of the case.
Suella Braverman (Fareham and Waterlooville) (Reform)Reform UK
The Prime Minister has made it clear that Labour councils should end their power-sharing agreements with local Green parties, following the disgracefully antisemitic motion passed by the national Green party that Zionism is racism. However, the Labour leader of Havant borough council has refused to condemn her Green party coalition partners for supporting that motion and has refused to withdraw from the coalition. Does the Minister agree that that is a breach of the Nolan principles, and will he clarify who is right: the Prime Minister, or the Labour leader of Havant borough council?
For the avoidance of doubt, I should point out that the Prime Minister is always right. I will take no lectures from Reform on standards and conduct in local government. We hear repeated complaints about the conduct of Reform-led councils across the country—about the way in which they treat their staff, the way in which they treat each other, and the way in which, quite often, the toxicity that we see online is brought into council chambers.
Mr SpeakerSpeaker
I call the shadow Minister.
David Simmonds (Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner) (Con)Conservative
The first of the Nolan principles is selflessness—acting solely in the public interest—but, according to feedback from councillors throughout the country, during the botched local government reorganisation process they felt that they were under pressure to put political considerations first: pressure that came from the previous Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Streatham and Croydon North (Steve Reed). The new Secretary of State told the House recently that she could not say whether his decision making was even lawful. Can she now tell the House whether the pressure that was put on those councillors to submit to his reorganisation agenda left them at risk of breaching the Nolan principles as well as the law?
The only pressure on us is the pressure that we place on ourselves to do the job well. As I said in my statement last week, there are no easy decisions on local reorganisation, and there is no perfect solution for most counties in England. What the Government have to do is balance competing interests and ensure that we assess the evidence base objectively, that we challenge when there may be gaps in the information provided, and, ultimately, that we make the best possible decision, and that is what we are getting on with doing.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5429431.