Public sector governance in the UK rests on two pillars. The Seven Principles of Public Life, established by the Committee on Standards in Public Life in 1995 and known as the Nolan principles, define the personal standard: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. They are embedded in the Ministerial Code, the Civil Service Code and codes of conduct across the public sector. The institutional standard is set internationally by the CIPFA/IFAC International Framework: Good Governance in the Public Sector, updated in a 2026 Edition that remains structured around seven interrelated principles, with commitment to ethical values and openness permeating everything else.
Both are serious, well-constructed standards. Both share the vulnerability of every code: they describe what good looks like, and remain silent on what makes a person or an institution hold the description when pressure arrives. Every standards failure in public life happens precisely there. The pattern that recurs across public inquiries is rarely ignorance of the standard. It is that people knew, and the room stayed silent. That is the Failure Sequence in institutional form, and it begins, as it always begins, with the failure of honesty.
The CIPFA/IFAC 2026 Edition describes itself as a diagnostic and developmental tool, built around questions for leadership teams rather than compliance checklists. Structurally, that is the same instinct as the RESOLVE Diagnostic, which makes the complement easy to state. The framework's questions assess whether the governance arrangements are right. RESOLVE assesses whether the behaviour underneath them survives contact with pressure.
The CIPFA/IFAC principles and the five disciplines
| CIPFA/IFAC principle (2026 Edition) | The discipline that makes it real |
|---|---|
| A. Commitment to ethical values and respect for the rule of law | Behavioural Integrity. The framework's own test is whether leaders apply the values "particularly in challenging situations" |
| B. Openness and comprehensive stakeholder engagement | Relentless Honesty with Reality. Openness is a disclosure posture; honesty is what fills it |
| C. Defining sustainable economic, social and environmental outcomes | Anchored Conviction. The framework names the exact pressure: holding long-term outcomes against shorter-term factors such as political cycles |
| D. Determining the interventions needed to achieve outcomes | Velocity of Decision. Objective evaluation that ends in a decision, not a deferral |
| E. Developing the capacity and capability of the entity and its leadership | The embedding layer: the Operating System, the Maturity Model and the Standard treat discipline as a developed capability, not a character trait |
| F. Managing risks, opportunities and performance through robust internal control | Relentless Honesty and Behavioural Integrity. Controls report what people are willing to record |
| G. Transparency, reporting and audit for effective accountability | Enterprise-First Accountability, owned by the leadership team rather than delegated to the audit trail |
The Nolan principles and the five disciplines
| Nolan principle | RESOLVE counterpart |
|---|---|
| Selflessness | Enterprise-First Accountability: the public interest above personal, functional or political interest |
| Integrity | Behavioural Integrity |
| Objectivity | Relentless Honesty with Reality: decisions taken on evidence, without bias |
| Accountability | Enterprise-First Accountability |
| Openness | Relentless Honesty with Reality |
| Honesty | Relentless Honesty with Reality |
| Leadership | All five disciplines, held under pressure. Nolan's seventh principle requires leaders to exhibit the other six and to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs. Challenging poor behaviour, in the moment, at personal cost, is a held line |
The mapping shows something worth stating plainly. Three of the seven Nolan principles resolve to the same discipline. Objectivity, openness and honesty are all, in behavioural terms, Relentless Honesty with Reality, and the Discipline Hierarchy explains why that matters: honesty is the discipline that fails first. A public body that wants to strengthen its Nolan compliance gets the greatest return from strengthening the single discipline that carries three principles at once.
For public sector leadership teams, the framework's tools work unchanged. The Diagnostic measures the five disciplines in any leadership context. The Pressure Test reveals how they behave when the scenario turns difficult. The Charter gives a board, a cabinet or an executive team a formal commitment that complements, and never replaces, the codes it already answers to.
The pattern that recurs across public inquiries is rarely ignorance of the standard. It is that people knew, and the room stayed silent.
Take the Diagnostic to see where the disciplines stand in your own leadership. For embedding work with public sector teams, see resolvetolead.com.
RESOLVE is not a compliance instrument and confers no status under any public sector code or framework. References: CIPFA/IFAC International Framework: Good Governance in the Public Sector, 2026 Edition; Committee on Standards in Public Life, The Seven Principles of Public Life.