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Codes of conduct for parliamentary staff
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Overview | Key points | Viewpoint | Papers presented | Comments and questions
Overview
Rules governing the employment of parliamentary staff can include a code of conduct for such staff. A questionnaire completed by parliaments from across the world identified the principles and practices that exist in relation to such codes of conduct.
A paper presented at the ASGP meeting held in Cairo in September 1997 examined the results of the questionnaire and considered whether some common principles could be deduced from the practices of different parliaments.
Key points
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Common principles governing officials working for a parliamentary assembly include independence and impartiality; operating within a legal framework; and not deriving personal advantage beyond statutory remuneration for activities undertaken as an employee of a parliamentary assembly.
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Traditional administrative rules, such as staff regulations, consist generally of obligations and prohibitions. Codes of conduct, by contrast, contain directives and principles of behaviour.
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A code of conduct sets out a system of values that, for parliamentary staff, encapsulates a fundamental relationship between commitment to the work and commitment to democracy.
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Codes of conduct reinforce the concept of an official enjoying the trust of the community. While staff regulations establish a relationship between the employer and the employee, codes of conduct involve the relationship between the employee and civil society.
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The autonomy of parliamentary administration should be reflected in the autonomy of the code of conduct applying to that administration.
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One function of a code of conduct is to recognise the good official: to highlight and encourage good performance so as to encourage emulation of that performance from other officials.
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Where behaviour that breaches a code of conduct also has implications of illegality, criminal and disciplinary codes or rules automatically apply.
- A common code of conduct for parliamentary staff across the world would not be realistic, even if there might exist a common set of values shared by parliamentary officials, such as probity and impartiality. But common principles operating across parliaments, as indicated through the questionnaire on codes of conduct, serve as a reference point for or as guidance in relation to this issue.
Viewpoint
"Codes of conduct operate at the level of morality and probity, not only at the level of honesty - which is more characteristic of criminal and administrative regulations. In this context, the many and various codes of conduct in operation in many countries are a real touchstone because of their specific and particular aim of producing rules of behaviour regulating not only relations with the public and amongst officials, but also the private life of the public employee."
Mauro Zampini, Italy
Papers presented
The paper and questionnaire results on code of conducts for parliamentary staff are available in Constitutional and Parliamentary Information No.175, 1998.
Codes of conduct for parliamentary staff
Mauro Zampini, Italy
Comments and questions
We welcome comments and questions as a means of continuing discussion on these issues. These should be emailed to the ASGP Joint Secretaries:
Comments and questions, along with responses to questions, will be posted on this site.
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