A Register of Interests is a record kept, usually by a

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

body, of

financial Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

interests of its members. The register documents interests which may potentially unethically or unlawfully influence members' official duties. The term is in use in most

Commonwealth countries The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of 56 sovereign states. Most of them were British colonies or dependencies of those colonies. No one government in the Commonwealth exercises power over the others, as is the case in a po ...

Jurisdiction

Australia

In 2019

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, it required "MPs to declare shares, directorships, real estate, gifts and more to demonstrate they represent their constituents without bias."

United Kingdom

The UK has had a register of interests since 1974. The UK register was reviewed and enhanced after the

Cash for Questions 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 ...

scandal of 1994. This led to the Nolan enquiry which gave birth to the Report on Standards in Local Government. All holders of public office in the UK are bound to this code. The

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

ary Register has evolved in latter years a Code of Conduct, and as of 2017, had also evolved into: *Register of Members' Financial Interests *Register of Interests of Members' Secretaries and Research Assistants *Register of Journalists' Interests *Register of All-Party Parliamentary Groups

References

Accountability Professional ethics {{government-stub