MPs and police at bottom of ethics league table, standards watchdog finds Others felt that the police had "had failed to uphold ethical standards in their handing of the London riots in 2011 and in regard to the death of Ian Tomlinson." Unveiling the committee's annual report, Sir Christopher Kelly, its chairman, said there was "still much to do before the high standards in public life to which we all aspire are fully internalised in the cultures of all our public institutions." He added that the committee had concluded that "the need now is not necessarily for more principles, codes or regulators but rather for the existing arrangements to be more consistently and actively implemented." During a question and answer session, Sir Christopher suggested he was concerned about how it would be possible to ensure high standards into the private firms which are increasingly providing services on behalf of the Government. He said it was "one of the major issues for the future, how can we preserve the standards that we want, while still getting the benefits perceived to arise from putting private sector" firms in charge of more public services. Dame Ann Owers, the chairman of the police complaints watchdog, said she was pressing the Government on the issue because she found during the Olympics that the Commission had no jurisdiction over G4S, whose guards provided much of the security during the Games. Elizabeth Filkin, who last year said the "close relationship between parts of Scotland Yard and the media has caused "serious harm" during the phone hacking scandal, asked whether the committee should issue guidelines for other public officials. Ms Filkin - the former parliamentary commissioner for standards - said: "Is there anything else that should be done to give more widespread advice to people in the public sector about how they ethically handle relations with the press," adding that staff in the health service and councils could need guidance. Sir Christopher said that it was up to public bodies to provide "clarity" about who was in charge with speaking to members of the Press. Ministers and civil servants had to overcome their recent public disagreements over the way Government is operating. He said that it was "quite clear there are frustrations, clearly something is not working... If you want to have high standards, what do you want? One of the things you want is leadership by example and open cultures. Despite the obvious frustrations on both sides, what is happening at present hardly suggests that this is the best way of providing either of those things. The news came after Nick Clegg said that MPs calling for a £20,000 pay rise are "living on a different planet." The Deputy Prime Minister attacked the "potty" MPs who last week claimed they are not being paid enough for their work in Parliament. He said on his weekly LBC radio phone-in: "It just beggars belief apparently that some MPs have anonymously said they deserve a pay increase. "They are living on a different planet to think that you can say to teachers and nurses and doctors, "You're only going to get a one per cent increase in your pay for the next several years but we deserve a [32 per cent] increase.""