The Standards Board holds its fifth annual assembly in Birmingham next week, with some 800 ethics and monitoring officers due to attend. After instituting major changes in the way it handles complaints such as localising investigations, the board's chief executive David Prince explains what should happen next

Ethical standards are high on the agenda in every sector. Major businesses have corporate responsibility managers, and Sir Alistair Graham has called on all in national and local public life to consider how their own and their organisation's behaviour matches up to the expectations placed on them by the public.