The Seven Principles of Public Life are the ethical foundation for local government in the UK. In a climate of rising public expectations and increasing scrutiny, translating those principles into day-to-day governance practice has never been more important.
What are the Nolan Principles?
The Nolan Principles or the Seven Principles of Public Life, as defined by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, are:
- Selflessness
- Integrity
- Objectivity
- Accountability
- Openness
- Honesty
- Leadership
Where did the Nolan Principles come from?
In 1995, the Committee on Standards in Public Life, chaired by Lord Nolan, set out a framework to define the ethical standards expected of everyone in public office. The seven principles were intended as a shared moral language for public servants at every level, from cabinet ministers to parish councillors.
Over the decades since, those principles have been embedded in codes of conduct, governance frameworks and accountability structures across national and local government, the NHS, higher education and the voluntary sector. Today, every local authority in England, from district and borough councils to county councils and combined authorities, is required to adopt a code of conduct that is at minimum consistent with the Nolan Principles, as set out in the Localism Act 2011.
What do the principles look like in practice?
For governance professionals working in local government, the Nolan Principles are daily operational realities that shape how meetings are run, how decisions are recorded and how information is shared across organisations of very different sizes and structures.
Accountability requires more than a willingness to answer questions. It depends on clear, accurate records of who made which decisions and on what basis. Meeting minutes, board papers and decision logs are the primary evidence trail. When records are incomplete or inaccessible, accountability becomes difficult to enforce and even harder to demonstrate to the public.
Openness means ensuring the right people can access the right information at the right time. In practice, this covers how agendas and supporting papers are distributed ahead of meetings, how decisions are communicated afterwards and how registers of interests are maintained and published. Where information is siloed or shared informally, the principle of openness is compromised before a meeting has even begun.
Integrity in practice requires robust processes for identifying and managing conflicts of interest. Councillors and officers alike need clear guidance on what must be declared, when and how, and those declarations need to be recorded and visible. A culture of integrity is built not through policy documents alone, but through the consistency with which those processes are applied across every tier of the organisation.
Leadership is perhaps the most demanding of the seven principles, because it asks those in authority not merely to comply with standards but to visibly embody them. For senior officers, elected members and combined authority mayors alike, that means how they conduct themselves in meetings, how they treat colleagues and whether they are willing to speak up when standards fall short.
The Challenge of Consistency Across Tiers
One of the biggest difficulties in local government governance is that standards vary widely between different tiers. A combined authority and a rural parish council are both expected to follow the same principles, but they operate with very different levels of resource, oversight and public scrutiny. Where governance capacity is limited, there is a real risk that the Nolan Principles exist on paper but are rarely applied in practice. Clerks and monitoring officers in smaller authorities often carry a heavy load in keeping standards on track, frequently without dedicated support or any meaningful enforcement powers.
The Role of Technology in Supporting Ethical Governance
Platforms like Convene are designed with exactly these challenges in mind. As local government faces growing demands for transparency and accountability, digital tools have an increasingly important role to play in making the Nolan Principles operational. Board portal software creates a single, auditable environment for distributing papers, recording decisions and managing declarations of interest.
Convene gives local authority governance teams a secure, structured platform for managing the full meeting cycle. From agenda building and paper distribution to minute-taking and action tracking, the platform creates a clear audit trail that supports accountability and openness across all committee and board activity.
Permissions-based access ensures the right councillors and officers see the right materials, while integrated tools help teams manage their governance obligations consistently, regardless of the size or structure of the authority.
At a time when public trust in local government is under strain and reform of the standards regime is actively under discussion, the governance tools that councils use are important. They are part of how ethical governance is practised and demonstrated every day.
Key Takeaways
The Nolan Principles describe what good public service looks like. The challenge for local government is not whether to uphold these principles, but whether the systems, structures and tools are in place to make upholding them straightforward rather than exceptional.
As the government moves towards introducing mandatory codes of conduct and tougher enforcement, governance professionals will play a central role in putting these changes into practice. The principles remain the same. The real challenge is embedding them more confidently and consistently in the way councils operate.
FAQs
What are the Seven Nolan Principles?
The Seven Nolan Principles, also known as the Seven Principles of Public Life, are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. They were introduced in 1995 by the Committee on Standards in Public Life and set the ethical standards expected of everyone working in public office in the UK.
Do the Nolan Principles apply to local councillors?
Yes, the Nolan Principles apply to all public servants, including local councillors at every tier of local government. Under the Localism Act 2011, every local authority in England is required to adopt a code of conduct that is consistent with the principles as a minimum.
Do the Nolan Principles apply outside local government?
The principles apply across the public sector, including national government, the civil service, the NHS, the police, education and the voluntary sector. They also apply to private and voluntary organisations that deliver services funded by taxpayers.
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