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Public Office (Accountability) Bill

Government Bill · started in the Commons

A Bill to Impose a duty on public authorities and public officials to act with candour, transparency and frankness; to make provision for the enforcement of that duty in their dealings with inquiries and investigations; to require public authorities to promote and take steps to maintain ethical conduct within all parts of the authority; to create an offence in relation to public authorities and public officials who mislead the public; to create further offences in relation to the misconduct of persons who hold public office and to abolish the common law offence of misconduct in public office; to make provision enabling persons to participate at inquiries and investigations where the conduct of public authorities may be in issue; and for connected purposes.

Where it is

Lords · 1st reading

What happens next

Lords 2nd reading · Tuesday 1 September

The route

In the Commons

  1. 1st reading16 Sept 2025
  2. 2nd reading3 Nov 2025
  3. Committee stage27 Nov 20253 sittings
  4. Report stage14 Jul
  5. 3rd reading14 Jul

In the Lords

  1. 1st readinghere16 Jul
  2. 2nd reading1 Sept
  3. Committee stage
  4. Report stage
  5. 3rd reading

Between the Houses

  1. Consideration of amendments
  2. Royal Assent

In the House

  • Tuesday 1 September

    Public Office (Accountability) Bill – second reading

    Lords·Main Chamber

From Parliament's calendar, which carries the venue, the time and any cancellation — the full order of business.

What we've written

No story of ours names this bill. We match coverage on the full title only, under both the names a bill has — sibling bills share their subjects, so anything looser would file one bill's coverage under another's name.

Every stage on the record (12)
  • Commons1st reading16 Sept 2025
  • Commons2nd reading3 Nov 2025
  • CommonsProgramme motion3 Nov 2025
  • CommonsMoney resolution3 Nov 2025
  • CommonsCommittee stage27 Nov 2025 + 2
  • CommonsCarry-over motion27 Apr
  • CommonsBill reintroduced14 May
  • CommonsReport stage14 Jul
  • Commons3rd reading14 Jul
  • CommonsCarry-over motion14 Jul
  • Lords1st reading16 Jul
  • Lords2nd reading1 Sept

How this works

The bill, its stages and its sitting dates come from Parliament's own bills service, read live rather than through our overnight pipeline. The route is ours: Parliament publishes the stages a bill has reached, not the ones it has left, so the ladder above is that record laid against the ordinary passage of a public bill. Procedural motions — programme, money, carry-over — are on the record below but not on the ladder, because a bill does not get closer to law by having its programme motion agreed.

"What we've written" matches our own stories on the bill's full title only. Parliament reuses subjects constantly — two Steel Industry Acts, two House of Lords bills — so a looser match would attribute one bill's coverage to another.

Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0 · this bill on bills.parliament.uk · dates are Europe/London.