We will want to look at whether a commissioner should be appointed for a fixed non renewable term

Sir Nigel Wicks

Her resignation in part prompted the Committee on Standards in Public Life's inquiry into whether regulations governing MPs are adequate to ensure the highest standards of propriety.

The committee, chaired by Sir Nigel Wicks, has already received a large volume of written evidence.

In its initial hearing on Tuesday, Leader of the Commons Robin Cook told the committee: "Standards of integrity are as high at Westminster as any other national Parliament.

"I deprecate the tendency to use a breach of high standards by any one individual to suggest that there is a systemic problem of low standards among MPs in general."

Meanwhile the chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee, Sir George Young, warned against MPs making complaints over what were essentially trivial matters.

He said he had issued a "yellow card" to one such complainant and warned in future he might make such warnings public.

"I have just issued what I might call a yellow card, but I see no reason why there shouldn't be a public letter, in appropriate circumstances, criticising somebody for making a frivolous, vexatious, time-wasting criticism. I think that might actually help," he said.

Meanwhile Mr Cook used the example of former Tory leader William Hague being censured in 1999 for failing to declare the fact he had been using Lord Archer's gym.

The leader of the Commons said he "couldn�t give a fig" about such an issue - raised originally by Labour's Fraser Kemp.

Protest

The committee will examine the role of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards; the existing MPs' code of conduct; the investigation and adjudication process; arrangements for independent scrutiny and monitoring and the role of MPs as holders of public office.

The inquiry follows the suspension of Keith Vaz, the former minister for Europe, although Sir Nigel has indicated that it would not consider individual cases.

Ms Filkin caused a storm with her decision not to re-apply for the job she has held since 1999 amid allegations that her investigations had been undermined by senior figures in Parliament.

Her departure prompted Tory MP Peter Bottomley to resign from the Commons standards and privileges committee in protest.

MPs have been divided in their views of Filkin

Sir Nigel said his inquiry was trying to give "trust and confidence in the workings of public institutions" to the general public.

"We will want to look at whether a commissioner should be appointed for a fixed non-renewable term - say five, six or seven years," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The inquiry will consider whether the commissioner - now Philip Mawer - should have powers to ask people to come to give evidence or to ask for papers to be brought without going through the select committee involved.

It will also look at whether the commissioner should be appointed in the same way as the Parliamentary ombudsman and Comptroller and Auditor General, whose roles are established through statute and "as a result have a certain degree of independence".

Sir Nigel is considering separate research into public attitudes towards public officials, but he said he did not accept that public confidence was at a "low ebb".

He did admit that MPs who spoke in the Commons about Mrs Filkin's resignation had not been pleased.

"Most of the MPs who spoke in those debates have a feeling that things might have been handled differently," he said.

The creation of the standards commissioner role and the code of conduct for MPs was prompted by a report issued by the committee under its previous chairman Lord Nolan in 1995.