Committee on Standards in Public Life
Independent UK body advising the Prime Minister on ethical standards in public life.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life proposed a £10,000 CAP on party donations in November 2011; no government acted, and after the 14 September 2026 Second Reading peers tabled four fresh CAP designs to the Representation of the People Bill.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Committee on Standards in Public Life
Proposed a donation cap in 2011 that no government enacted
UK Local Elections 2026: Mentioned in: Peers table four caps on party donorsMentioned in: Byrne pushes for a permanent crypto ban
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Standards inquiry pauses as Farage exits
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Standards probe opens on Farage £5m gift
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Standards opens Farage £5m gift inquiry
UK Local Elections 2026Background
The Committee on Standards in Public Life is an Independent body that advises the Prime Minister on ethical standards across public life. John Major set it up in 1994.
Its first report, in 1995, set out the Seven Principles of Public Life: selflessness, Integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. They are known as the Nolan Principles after its first chair, Lord Nolan. The committee does not investigate individual complaints.
Party funding is one of its recurring subjects, and its thirteenth report, Political party finance: ending the big donor culture, published in November 2011, argued for a £10,000 CAP on donations. Ministers never legislated for it, which is why the report keeps returning whenever large gifts to a party make news.
The committee's 2011 cap went nowhere
Fifteen years on, the committee's thirteenth report is the yardstick for the Lords amendments. That 2011 report concluded that only a CAP on donations, set at £10,000, could take big money out of party funding. Sir Hayden Phillips's review had recommended a CAP in 2007, and neither proposal ever reached the statute book.
The committee's number has resurfaced. Baroness Hayter's amendment would cut the CAP on gifts from overseas electors from £100,000 to £10,000, the same figure. The four general caps now before peers range FAR more widely, between Lord Cromwell's limit of £100,000 per five-year period and Lord Carlile's annual ceiling of £5m.