Contempt and the Code of Conduct

15.26Each House's disciplinary powers over its Members are aspects of privilege in the widest sense. Nonetheless, not all the cases involving Members of the Commons are treated as contempts. Since the 1940s, many cases have been seen as raising issues of whether the standards which the House is entitled to expect of its Members have been observed.1 This has increasingly been the case since the House instituted the post of Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, so there would be independent investigation of complaints. Indeed, in 2015 the Committee of Privileges referred a complaint of disclosure of a draft committee report to the Parliamentary Commissioner, since the principle of independent investigation had been established, in the expectation they would report to the Committee on Standards. The Committee on Standards subsequently referred the Commissioner's report back to the Committee of Privileges for determination.2