7 Conclusion and Forward Look
7.1 We face a busy year in building on the progress
recorded in this report. The completion of the review of the Guide
to the Rules will have to be followed by an intensive programme
of briefing Members on any agreed changes, preparing the first
Register on the new basis, and amending all the associated documentation
and guidance. This programme will have to be dovetailed with any
changes approved by the House in order to implement the 'one stop
shop' provision in the recently-enacted Electoral Administration
Act described in Section 1 of this report. The Committee on Standards
and Privileges and I will be continuing our efforts, in support
of other parts of the House, to secure clearer rules and guidance
for Members in such areas as the use of publicly funded stationery
and postage and the application of allowances. And all this will
have to be done whilst we continue to process with fairness, impartiality,
thoroughness and appropriate dispatch whatever complaints against
Members may arise.
7.2 Maintaining such a programme would not be possible
without the commitment of many colleagues - especially those in
the small team in my office, to whom I pay warm tribute - and
the support of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, in particular
its Chairman, Sir George Young, and its Clerk, Dr Christopher
Ward. I also value greatly the support of concerned outsiders,
whether in other standards bodies, in academia or in the media.
I thank them all. Whatever continued progress we may make will
be through the efforts of many rather than a few.
18 July 2006 Sir
Philip Mawer
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