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16 March 2018 / John Gould
Issue: 7785 / Categories: Features , Regulatory
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Regulatory matters

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John Gould explains why honesty & integrity are not the same

  • The relationship between two concepts: honesty and integrity.
  • Clear ethical standards are the foundation of our profession and the basis of the public trust upon which our profession depends.
  • Distinguishing between the two, integrity is the standard that matters for the regulation of our profession.

You might have thought that what it means to act honestly or with integrity wouldn’t have been in much doubt since the days when Adam came to realise that serpents weren’t to be trusted to the ends of the Garden of Eden. You would, however, be wrong. Ethical standards change according to time and place. If there had been a Viking Code of Conduct, no doubt successful murder and pillage would have been required outcomes and the particularly harsh treatment of monks an indicative behaviour.

The same, of course, is true of the standards of conduct generally. Once, a solicitor who kept clients’ money in his own bank account and acted as a banker would not have been criticised

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