One of the most profound changes in British public life over the last twenty years has been the increasing concern with probity and standards. Some of that concern has been the product of scandals such as the cash for questions affair and the expenses scandal; some of it reflects the erosion of trust in politicians and in traditional approaches to government and administration. The book analyses the way new machinery and new rules have been put in place in different parts of the public sector as a protection against corruption and conflict of interest and as a spur to raising standards. It provides the first full-length treatment of the evolving integrity agenda in the United Kingdom.

The book traces the impact of the Committee on Standards in Public Life which set out the Nolan principles in its first report in 1995 and examines how those principles have been applied in different sectors - Parliament, the executive, the civil service, local government and the devolved governments - and how they have been applied to the problems of party funding and lobbying. Finally, it assesses the changing level of support for the Committee's mission and the impact of its work both on the quality of public life itself and on public confidence.