I think, back in the 1990s, there was quite a focus on increasing the transparency of council decision-making, efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability. Legislation then—the Local Electoral Act 2001, the Local Government Act 2002, and the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002—did provide councils with more flexible tools, and the Local Government Act also requires, in section 14, that councils conduct their business in a clear, transparent, and democratically accountable way. The legislation means that all councils have to adopt a code of conduct setting out how elected members behave towards each other, towards staff, and how they use the information available to them as elected members. 