Watchdog welcomes tougher new rules to help beat bullying

Scotland’s ethics watchdog has welcomed “progressive” changes made to the code of conduct Fife councillors must adhere to.

Following well documented indiscretions concerning allegations of impropriety in politics and entertainment, the Scottish Parliament approved a new provision on bullying and harassment.

The Standards Commission for Scotland (SCS) has heralded the new arrangements, which reiterate that bullying and harassment will not be tolerated and would be a breach of the code.

Fife Council in particular has taken a lead on the issue, with an inappropriate behaviour working group, which strengthened guidelines on how elected members should behave and streamlined the complaints procedure.

The changes also come after the Standards Commission ruled in April that Fife councillor David McDiarmid had breached certain paragraphs of the code of conduct when dealing with a licensing issue in December 2015.

Mr McDiarmid was suspended from Fife’s regulation and licensing committee for two months.

Professor Kevin Dunion, convener of the SCS, said: “The Councillors’ Code of Conduct plays a vital role in setting out the standards councillors must apply when carrying out their working duties.

“There have been a number of high profile allegations of improper conduct by those in politics and showbusiness so we are pleased to note that progressive changes have been made to the code to reiterate that such behaviour is unacceptable.

“We have produced an advice note for councillors to make it clear what behaviour would constitute bullying and harassment under the amended code and will continue to work closely with the Scottish Government to identify other potential improvements.”