---
title: "Nolan Principles: Seven Principles of Public Life"
description: "The Nolan Committee's Seven Principles of Public Life set ethical standards for UK public office holders, ensuring accountability and integrity in governance."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/nolan-committee-seven-principles"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- The Seven Principles of Public Life are a UK ethical code—selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership—governing all holders of public office.
- Are the Nolan Principles legally enforceable?
- Who do the Seven Principles apply to?
- How do the Nolan Principles differ from the Ministerial Code?
- Why are the Nolan Principles relevant to Indian civil service exams?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

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## Positions at a glance

### Supporters

The seven principles are stated as a unified ethical framework: selflessness requires office holders to act solely in the public interest and never to obtain financial or material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. Integrity prohibits placing oneself under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might seek to influence the performance of official duties. Objectivity requires that decisions on appointments, contracts, and the award of public benefits be made on merit. Accountability makes office holders answerable to the public and subject to whatever scrutiny is appropriate. Openness requires that decisions and actions be taken in an open manner, with information restricted only where the wider public interest clearly demands. Honesty obliges the declaration of private interests relating to public duties and the resolution of any conflict in favour of the public interest. Leadership requires that holders promote and support these principles by example and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

### Opponents

The principles are embedded across contemporary British governance. The Ministerial Code published by successive prime ministers, including the editions issued under Rishi Sunak in 2022 and Keir Starmer in 2024, opens by restating the Seven Principles. The Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests assesses alleged breaches against them; resignations such as that of Home Secretary Suella Braverman in 2022 turned on questions of the Ministerial Code. The Office for Standards in Public Life debates, and the 2021 "Upholding Standards in Public Life" report (the Boardman review feeding into committee work following the Greensill Capital lobbying controversy involving former prime minister David Cameron) pressed for stronger enforcement of the framework. Indian civil service candidates encounter the principles directly in the General Studies Paper IV (GS4) ethics syllabus, where the Nolan Principles are a recurring point of comparison with domestic codes of conduct.

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Example

In November 2021, the Committee on Standards in Public Life invoked the Nolan Principles in its "Upholding Standards in Public Life" report, recommending stronger enforcement after the Greensill Capital lobbying controversy involving David Cameron.

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