What precautions it takes to ensure that appointees to Scottish Government bodies avoid conflicts of interest and publicly disclose recorda…

For OCPAS regulated appointments, conflicts of interest are fully explored at the interview stage, should an applicant get that far in the process.
When ministers are asked to decide on whether to appoint a candidate who has a conflict of interest, they do so fully aware of the facts surrounding the conflict of interest and of the selection panel''s view on the candidate''s suitability for appointment.
Appointment rounds that are not regulated by OCPAS are encouraged to follow exactly the same procedures in order to avoid the interference of conflicts of interest in the work of appointees.
As regards members who have been appointed to public bodies, there is clear guidance on the procedures to be followed. Guidance issued by the Standards Commission in April 2008 reminded public bodies of their duty to set up, maintain and make available for public inspection a register of the interests of their members. It also encouraged that the register of interests should be made available on their websites.
In accordance with the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Act 2000 most public bodies have a Code of Conduct which requires members interests to be registered. The Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Act 2000 (Register of Interests) Regulation 2003 requires all members to register their relevant interests not later than one month after the date of their appointment. The regulations further state that each devolved public body shall normally have a standards officer and that the standards officer will maintain that record in respect of any person for five years after the date that that person ceases to be member of the public body.
The Standards Commission is currently liaising with public bodies to ensure that a register of interests is published on the website of each public body.