Speeches by Carling.

“That is a really helpful perspective. In another answer just now, you also talked about having the powers and tools that you need already for a lot of your work, including being able to set up codes of practice and suchlike, but what teeth do you have if a political party or campaign group, or anyone, just decides to i…”

“I commend the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) on bringing forward this debate, which is a really valuable opportunity to talk about this issue. I also thank the many hundreds of my own constituents who have written to me about this from a variety of perspectives—if I have not got back to them yet, I will do …”

“No, that is very helpful. Off the back of that and some of the earlier comments that you made, does there need to be some more co-ordination in standards and reporting regimes across Parliament, Government and other areas of public life? I am particularly thinking about the interaction between the ministerial code and …”

“The hon. Lady has been very clear that she wished the Government had just charged forward in some direction or other. I have had hundreds of constituents email me about this, from various perspectives and various concerns about the workability of certain solutions. I would like to listen to them, and I think it would b…”

“Before the 2024 election, the Standards Committee described the parliamentary standards landscape in a report as being complicated but having “a logic behind the complexity”. Daniel, could you give us a sense of whether the system is well enough understood first by people within Parliament and by the general public mor…”

“Daniel, you touched on this topic just now, but I will ask the question anyway. We have a set-up now where the EIC has been set up and has had its scope and terms of reference set by Government, but it has a remit to cover standards all across public life, including in Parliament. Is it appropriate for a Government-spo…”

“You mentioned there the statistics on how well run elections are and how people feel about that, which is really important, but there is also, as you say, how people feel about the democratic system, trust in politics, and the process more generally, where there is a lot more concern. When measuring your success, which…”

“That is a really helpful perspective. In another answer just now, you also talked about having the powers and tools that you need already for a lot of your work, including being able to set up codes of practice and suchlike, but what teeth do you have if a political party or campaign group, or anyone, just decides to i…”

“Thank you; that is really helpful. Just to move on to a slightly different area, in your written evidence, you have talked quite a bit about how the Electoral Commission works to ensure public confidence in the democratic system as a whole. Can you give us more of a sense of how you do that and how you are measuring yo…”

“My hon. Friend was a big advocate for kinship carers before becoming a Minister, and he still is. Kinship care is incredibly hard for everyone involved. It often arises from really difficult circumstances, and the family members who make that commitment often give up a lot to do so. Will the Minister join me in paying …”

“I just wanted to say that in terms of the suspension or dismissal of councillors that the Chair mentioned, or preventing from standing in future elections, is it made easier, in your view, if there is a time limit on it? I am just looking here at the Government response from November 2025 to the most recent consultatio…”

“Sorry, no; as in the level of abuse that senior officers and chief execs are getting. Did you get any sense of how much of it is public access versus councillors causing that?”

“First to you, Kim. We have seen a SOLACE survey that highlighted how 81% of chief executives and senior officers in local authorities experienced abuse or intimidation in the previous year. Do you have any sense of what level of that came from councillors versus the general public?”

“That is really useful. It chimes with some experiences I am having locally at the moment, where we have a councillor who has published the work addresses of another councillor and encouraged a lot of personal vitriol in my authority, which is really difficult. It is interesting hearing that point you have made around t…”

“I would like to move into the online space a little now. Matt, in written evidence you have raised the issue of how much political activity is happening online, and we have mentioned it a little today, and how that interacts with the standards system. Are you able to give us a bit of clarity on what aspects of politica…”

“That is helpful. I guess that sounds almost like sentencing guidelines, maybe.”

“Does it work, or does it need to change?”

“That is really helpful. We are having a lot of these issues locally in terms of particular situations as well, so I very much appreciate that. Iain, I particularly value that point around the training because with the Government bringing in a minimum code of conduct across councils, that problem may well intensify in t…”

“If that is available, that would be really helpful. No worries if it is not. Does anyone have any anecdotal thoughts on the extent to which we are seeing senior officers having to deal with abuse from councillors?”

“That is really useful. In terms of councillor behaviour, is there a difference in the level of issues at the different local authority level, particularly between town and parish councils versus principal authorities?”