Nolan Principles

The Nolan Principles, formally the Seven Principles of Public Life, were articulated in the First Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, published in May 1995 under the chairmanship of Lord Nolan, a Law Lord. The Committee was established by Prime Minister John Major in October 1994 in direct response to the "cash-for-questions" affair, in which Members of Parliament were found to have accepted payment for tabling parliamentary questions, and to wider public disquiet over standards in government. The principles were intended to apply universally to ministers, civil servants, MPs, members of public bodies, local government, the NHS, the police and all who spend public money or deliver public services, irrespective of whether the conduct is expressly prohibited by law.

The seven principles are: selflessness (acting solely in the public interest, not for personal material gain or benefit to family and friends); integrity (avoiding any obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might seek to influence official duties); objectivity (making choices, including appointments and awards of contracts, on merit); accountability (being answerable to the public and submitting to appropriate scrutiny); openness (taking decisions in an open manner and restricting information only when the wider public interest demands); honesty (truthfulness and the duty to declare private interests and resolve conflicts); and leadership (promoting and supporting these principles by example and challenging poor behaviour). Originally the 1995 report defined the principles with descriptive paragraphs; the wording was refined in subsequent reports, and the leadership principle was strengthened in 2013 to require active championing of the standards. They are codified in the UK Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Code.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life remains a standing advisory body, and the principles have been embedded in successive instruments — for example the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, which placed the Civil Service Code on a statutory footing, and the codes of conduct enforced by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. As of 2026 the seven principles continue to anchor UK public-ethics debate, invoked during episodes such as breaches of the Ministerial Code, lobbying controversies and Partygate-era scrutiny. Their influence extends internationally: they are frequently cited as a model for codes of conduct in Commonwealth administrations, and India's Second Administrative Reforms Commission (Fourth Report, "Ethics in Governance", 2007) drew explicitly on the Nolan framework when recommending a code of ethics for Indian public servants.

For the examination, the Nolan Principles are core material in UPSC General Studies Paper IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude), where they appear in questions on probity in governance, codes of conduct versus codes of ethics, and the foundational values of civil service. Candidates should be able to enumerate all seven precisely, attribute them to the 1995 Nolan Committee, and contrast them with the Indian Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964 and the constitutional values they reinforce. A common answer-writing angle asks aspirants to apply specific principles to a case study — for instance distinguishing "objectivity" (merit-based decisions) from "integrity" (avoiding obligations) — so rote recall must be paired with applied differentiation. FSOT and CSS candidates encounter the principles within public administration and governance ethics sections.