Conflicts of interest

Mark Hand is Director of Profession, International, Cymru and Northern Ireland

Welcome to the third in a new series of monthly blogs that will be highlighting our shared role in upholding professional standards. This is vital to preserve the reputation of you, our members, the planning profession and the RTPI.

Whether you’re a new student member, a Fellow with decades of experience, or somewhere in between, every member at every level of membership has signed up to the RTPI’s Code of Professional Conduct.

This blog explores the topic of conflicts of interest.

Identifying potential conflicts

A conflict of interest occurs when personal or other interests affect your ability to exercise independent professional judgment, calling into question your professional integrity.

Potential sources of conflicts of interest can include undertaking work that:

• affects a close friend, relative or business associate;
• utilises information acquired via previous employment that is not in the public domain;
• makes a recommendation or decision on a planning application or Plan allocation that affects land or property within your ownership; or
• involves submitting planning applications for private clients within the area covered by the Local Planning Authority that you are employed by.

Potential conflicts can arise even when a member is not being paid for planning advice, for example if your advice or actions could be seen as benefiting or being detrimental to the interests of someone you have more than a passing acquaintance with.

What does our Code of Professional Conduct say?

All members are required to adhere to the Code’s five core principles:

• Honesty and integrity;
• Professional competence;
• Independent professional judgment;
• Professional practice and duties;
• Professional behaviour and respect.

Clauses 2 and 3 of the Code state:

2. Members must take all reasonable steps to ensure that their private, personal, political and financial interests do not conflict with their professional duties.
3. Members must disclose to their employer or clients, as appropriate, any potential conflicts of interest and must take all reasonable precautions to ensure that no conflict of duty arises between the interests of one employer, client or business associate and the interests of another.

What should I do?

Members should be alert to situations where potential conflicts could occur and declare an interest to their employer or client as soon as they become aware of one. A written record should be kept of any declarations.

Identifying a conflict does not necessarily mean you have to stop work, but it does mean that you need to take reasonable steps to ensure that it does not affect your decision. This might mean:

• declining or standing down from a commission;
• requesting that someone else deals with a planning application or site promotion;
• having clearly laid out internal safeguards in instances where members within the same large organisation are advising on different sides of a planning matter.

RTPI members who engage in planning activities in their spare time (either paid or voluntary) should make clear that any advice given is provided in a private capacity.  Members should also check whether they need to hold professional indemnity insurance (PII), details of which are given in the Supplementary Regulations on PII.

In all instances, members should consider how their actions might be viewed by others, even if their actual motives and behaviour are not compromised. This is particularly important in a climate of heightened public scrutiny and a seeming abundance of conspiracy theories. It is always wise to be alert to, and where possible avoid, perceived conflicts of interest.

Resources available

Further advice can be found in Professional Standards Guidance Note 2 ‘Conflicts of Interest’, including several real-life case study examples to illustrate when breaches of your Code of Conduct might occur.

The Code of Professional Conduct can be found on our recently refreshed professional standards webpages, alongside information about how complaints of misconduct are investigated, the potential sanctions, recent decisions and a host of guidance to help you, including a series of Professional Standards Guidance Notes.