The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has written to Parliament’s Standards Committee asking for authorisation to publish decisions not to investigate complaints.

Currently, the Commissioner’s reports on his investigations are normally published. But if the Commissioner decides not to investigate a complaint, he cannot publish his decision to this effect. He can only send it to the complainant and the person who was the subject of the complaint. This is according to the practice established by the Committee in 2019.

In his letter to the Committee, the Commissioner referred to a complaint he had received alleging that the Hon. Alex Borg, Leader of the Opposition, had made a false statement about generic medicines. In December 2025 the Commissioner decided that this complaint did not warrant investigation. The media houses of the two main parties broadcast sharply different reports on this decision.

In his letter, the Commissioner stated that the media could broadcast such different interpretations of his decision because he did not have the power to publish the decision itself. He stated that it was time for the Committee to revise its procedures in the light of experience, and he proposed that he should be able to publish decisions not to investigate complaints.

The Commissioner pointed out that he had made the same proposal to the Committee in June 2023, December 2023 and September 2024, but the Committee had not come to a decision on the matter. He therefore requested a prompt decision from the Committee in the interests of transparency.

The Commissioner’s latest letter is available from here.