ABSTRACT
The United Kingdom (UK) has a long-lasting tradition in promoting and advocating for high ethical standards in public service and addressing corruption. The European Union Anti-Corruption Report finds that the UK needs to pay more attention to encouraging higher standards of integrity for elected officials and address political corruption. Ethics are generally defined as a set of principles that provide a structure for appropriate action in accordance with that set of principles. Huberts, D. Pijl and A. Steen classify as unethical behaviour those acts that violate the integrity of a public office holder if their behaviour contained acts that can fall under the categories of fraud, corruption, theft, conflicts of interest, improper use of authority, misuse of information or discrimination. The Labour Government that came into power after the 1997 elections announced its objective to engage in a radical reform of the financial services regulatory structure that would strip the Bank of England of its supervisory responsibilities.
