Welcome to the website of the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland

The Commissioner and his team work in two areas:

· Public standards - we investigate complaints about the conduct of MSPs, local authority councillors and members of public bodies

· Public appointments - we monitor how people are appointed to the boards of specified public bodies in Scotland

You can find out more about the Commissioner’s work on the pages of this website.

Read more about the background to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards

Our work on
public standards

The Commissioner is an independent Officeholder who is responsible for investigating complaints about:-

  1. Councillors;
  2. Members of devolved Public Bodies;
  3. Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs)

who are alleged to have contravened their relevant Code of Conduct.

More information on public standards can be found here.

Featured Publication

The Commissioner's British Sign Language Plan

Date Added: 22 Oct 2018

This Plan sets out the actions which the Commissioner proposes to take over the period 2018-2024 to improve access for BSL users to the range of statutory functions that he fulfils. The Plan is available to download from this website in Word and pdf formats. A BSL translation of the Plan will be made available to view on YouTube and Facebook.

PDF Download
The Commissioner's British Sign Language Plan (PDF File)

MS Word Download
The Commissioner's British Sign Language Plan (MS Word File)

Our work on
public appointments

The Commissioner regulates the way appointments are made to the boards of Scotland's public bodies. The Commissioner:

  1. publishes a code of practice to be followed when making non-executive appointments to the boards of public bodies
  2. examines the practices used during appointment rounds with a view to ensuring they comply with the code of practice
  3. investigates complaints about the public appointments process
  4. monitors appointments with a view to ensuring they are made fairly and openly and that everyone who may be interested in an appointment has the opportunity to apply.

More information on public appointments can be found here.

What we publish

To find out what documents the Commissioner publishes and how to access them, please go to our Guide to Information.

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