Sir Gordon Stanley Downey (26 April 1928 – 12 April 2022) was Britain's first

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an officer of the British House of Commons. The work of the officer is overseen by the Commons Select Committee on Standards. The current commissioner is Kathryn Stone. Duties The commissioner is i ...

. The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards was set up by the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

in 1995 as a result of recommendations made by the

Committee on Standards in Public Life The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government, established by John Major in 1994 to advise the Prime Minister on ethical standards of public life. It promotes a code o ...

. He resigned shortly after ''Trial by Conspiracy'' by J Boyd Hunt was published in 1998, casting doubt on his report about Neil Hamilton and the

cash-for-questions affair The "cash-for-questions affair" was a political scandal of the 1990s in the United Kingdom. It began in October 1994 when ''The Guardian'' newspaper alleged that London's most successful parliamentary lobbyist, Ian Greer of Ian Greer Associates ...

. Downey was previously chairman of the investors' "watchdog", the Personal Investment Authority. Downey died on 12 April 2022, at the age of 93.

References

1928 births 2022 deaths Ombudsmen in the United Kingdom Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Fellows of King's College London {{UK-gov-bio-stub