Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards

House of Commons officer who investigates MPs’ conduct and keeps the Register of Interests

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
Abbreviation
Type
Formation
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Headquarters	House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
Parent organization

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an independent officer of the House of Commons, appointed by resolution of the House under Standing Order No. 150. The commissioner keeps the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and the registers for MPs’ staff, journalists and All-Party Parliamentary Groups; advises members in confidence; advises the Committee on Standards on the Code of Conduct; investigates alleged breaches; and since 19 July 2018 considers cases against MPs under the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme. The post does not cover the House of Lords, which has its own House of Lords Commissioner for Standards.

The office was created in 1995 after the “cash for questions” affair, on the recommendation of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (Nolan). Sir Gordon Downey was the first holder. The current commissioner is Daniel Greenberg CB, the seventh, appointed for a single non-renewable five-year term from 1 January 2023 to 2028, four days a week.

History

Nolan’s first report (1995) proposed an independent commissioner, a Code of Conduct and a published register of interests after The Guardian and others had documented MPs taking cash to table questions. The House created the post the same year. Downey’s first large file was cash-for-questions. The architecture — commissioner reports; a cross-party committee recommends; the House votes sanctions — has been stable since. What has not been stable is the willingness of the House to leave the commissioner alone.

Appointees

Name	Took office	Left office	Notes
Sir Gordon Downey	1995	1999	First commissioner. Investigated cash-for-questions.
Elizabeth Filkin	1999	February 2002	Did not reapply after the Commons Commission refused an automatic second term, cut the post to three days and required reapplication every three years. Said she had faced “quite remarkable” pressure from MPs she had investigated, including holders of high office, and whispering campaigns and hostile briefing by civil servants.
Sir Philip Mawer	2002	end of 2007	Left before a second term ended to become independent adviser on ministerial standards to Gordon Brown.
John Lyon CB	1 January 2008	31 December 2012	Five-year term.
Kathryn Hudson	1 January 2013	31 December 2017	Five-year term.
Kathryn Stone OBE	1 January 2018	31 December 2022	ICGS remit added July 2018. Investigated Owen Paterson; Conservative ministers publicly suggested she consider her position.
Daniel Greenberg CB	1 January 2023	31 December 2027 (five-year term)	Former Parliamentary Counsel and Commons Counsel for Domestic Legislation. Appointment not renewable.

Functions

The commissioner may investigate on complaint or on own initiative. Findings go to the Committee on Standards. Sanctions (apology, suspension, in extreme cases a recall petition) are for the House. Confidential advice to members is a large part of the published job and is invisible. The ICGS extension put bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct by MPs into the same office that already holds the interests register.

Controversies

Filkin, 2001

Elizabeth Filkin produced critical reports on Geoffrey Robinson, Keith Vaz and others. In October 2001 the House of Commons Commission told her the job would be advertised and she must reapply; hours were to fall from four days to three. She refused. In a letter to Speaker Michael Martin she said the changes would “violate” the independence of the office and that she had been under pressure from investigated MPs “including some holding high office.” The Guardian reported named Whitehall press officers briefed against her on ministerial instruction. Martin Bell called the episode a “dispiriting signal about parliament’s willingness to police itself.” The post survived; the lesson drawn by later commissioners is that robustness has a career cost.

Paterson and Stone, 2021

Kathryn Stone found that Owen Paterson, then Conservative MP for North Shropshire, had made 14 approaches to ministers and officials for two paying clients, Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods (about £100,000 a year on top of salary). The Committee on Standards called it an “egregious” breach of paid-advocacy rules and recommended 30 sitting days’ suspension — enough to trigger a recall petition. On 3 November 2021 the government whipped Conservative MPs to block the sanction and rewrite the standards system. Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng suggested on television that Stone should consider her position. After a 24-hour backlash Downing Street reversed. Paterson resigned on 4 November rather than face the vote. In 2024 the European Court of Human Rights unanimously rejected his claim that the investigation had been unfair.

The episode is the Commons counterpart to the Lords Chadlington PPE file: a paid-advocacy finding, a party attempt to break the referee, then a retreat. Stone completed her term. The Code was not rewritten.

Design limits

The commissioner cannot investigate ministers acting as ministers (that is the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests), nor peers (Lords Commissioners), nor party donors who are not members. MPs’ outside earnings remain lawful if registered and if paid advocacy is not proved. The Filkin and Paterson rows are about whether the House will enforce its own Code when the subject is powerful, not about whether the Code reaches every form of influence.

Current commissioner

Daniel Greenberg CB took office on 1 January 2023. He was Parliamentary Counsel (1991–2010), then Commons Counsel for Domestic Legislation (2016–2022), and edits standard practitioners’ texts on statute law. He has written separately on Jewish law and communal practice. The appointment runs to the end of 2027 and is not renewable.

Contact

Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

standardscommissioner@parliament.uk

Official page

See also

• House of Lords Commissioner for Standards
• Committee on Standards
• Committee on Standards in Public Life
• Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme
• Register of Members’ Financial Interests
• Owen Paterson

External links

• Official page
• Meet the Commissioner