A Bill to make provision about mechanisms for promoting and protecting standards of integrity and ethics in the public service; to make provision about appointments to the House of Lords and the House of Lords Appointments Commission; and for connected purposes.
House of Lords
30 April 2026
May contain errors — check source documents for definitive information.
This Lords bill would create an Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Conduct and Interests to monitor conflicts and publish ministers’ interests, and require the Prime Minister to publish and regularly review the Ministerial Code. It also creates a governance framework for public appointments and introduces rules for business appointments with enforcement powers, applying across the four nations. The document trail shows these core elements as introduced at 1st reading; later stages will consider amendments and details through committee scrutiny and potential changes to powers or scope.
The bill has been introduced at 1st reading in the Lords (22 January 2025). The next stage is the 2nd reading in the Lords; no committee-stage details or amendments are published yet.
Generated 21 February 2026
22 Jan 2025
The 2024-26 session of Parliament has prorogued and this bill will make no further progress.
The bill creates an Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Conduct and Interests to monitor conflicts, publish interests, advise ministers, and oversee compliance with the Ministerial Code, which the Prime Minister must publish, review, consult on, and lay before Parliament. It also establishes a governance framework for public appointments—the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the Commission on Standards in Public Life, the House of Lords Appointments Commission, and the Commission on Business Appointments—together with a Public Appointments Code and Business Appointment Rules to be consulted on, audited, and laid before Parliament. COBA gains enforcement powers, including civil penalties (up to £7,500) for breaches of the Rules, with annual reporting by the oversight bodies, and the Act applies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to strengthen transparency, integrity and independence in public life.
No recorded votes for this bill yet.
