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857. I recommend that
the Select Committee should endorse the following findings relating
to individual Members:-
Mr Smith
(i) Mr
Smith accepted cash payments directly from Mr Al Fayed
of between £18,000 and £25,000 in return for lobbying
services. There is no evidence to indicate that he received cash
from Mr Al Fayed indirectly through Mr Greer.
(ii) The
way in which these payments were received and concealed fell well
below the standards expected of Members of Parliament.
(iii) The
allegation that Mr Smith was paid to initiate
an Adjournment debate in 1986 is not substantiated.
(iv) Mr
Smith's financial interest in relation to House of
Fraser was only registered in January 1989 when it had been publicly
exposed by Mr Rowland; and then only hesitantly for a period of
two and a half weeks. This has to be seen as a disingenuous attempt
at concealment. On any view, this was a totally unacceptable
form of registration by Mr Smith.
(v) Mr
Smith persistently and deliberately failed to declare
his interests in dealings with Ministers and officials over House
of Fraser issues.
(vi) To
his credit, Mr Smith eventually admitted receiving
payments, although not until he was asked in 1994; and he expressed
his regrets for the non-registration and non-declaration of interests.
Mr Hamilton
(i) The
evidence that Mr Hamilton received cash payments
directly from Mr Al Fayed in return for lobbying services is compelling;
and I so conclude. The amount received by him is unknown but
is unlikely to have been less than the total amount received by
Mr Smith. There is no evidence to indicate that Mr
Hamilton received cash from Mr Al Fayed indirectly through
Mr Greer.
(ii) The
way in which these payments were received and concealed fell well
below the standards expected of Members of Parliament.
(iii) There
is insufficient evidence to show that Mr Hamilton
received Harrods vouchers.
(iv) The
hospitality Mr Hamilton received from Mr Al Fayed
at the Ritz and elsewhere was intended, and accepted, as part
of his reward for lobbying. It was not, as it should have been,
registered.
(v) Mr
Hamilton failed to register two introduction payments
from Mr Greer in relation to NNC and UST, some of which he took
in kind. There is insufficient evidence to show that the UST
payment was a disguised consultancy fee.
(vi) Mr
Hamilton did not register hospitality received from
UST in 1989; on balance, it would have been better had he done
so.
(vii) Mr
Hamilton deliberately misled the President of the Board
of Trade about his financial relationship with Mr Greer.
(viii) Mr
Hamilton failed to register a consultancy fee from
Strategy Network International on the spurious grounds that an
interest acquired and disposed of within four weeks was non-registrable.
(ix) Mr
Hamilton persistently and deliberately failed to declare
his interests in dealings with Ministers and officials on the
issues of House of Fraser and Skoal Bandits and, in some cases,
was positively misleading about the status of his representations.
(x) Mr
Hamilton accepted a commission payment for introducing
a constituent to Mr Greer, as well as a consultancy fee for representing
that constituent's interests. Both these actions were unacceptable,
the latter additionally so because it created a conflict of interest
for Mr Hamilton in representing his other constituents.
(xi) The
allegation that Mr Hamilton accepted a paid consultancy
from Mobil Oil in return for asking Parliamentary questions is
not substantiated.
Sir Andrew
Bowden
(i) There
is insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegation that Sir
Andrew received, or demanded, cash payments from Mr
Al Fayed in return for lobbying services.
(ii) The
election donation of £5,319 from Mr Greer was intended as
a reward for lobbying and Sir Andrew probably
knew it came originally from Mr Al Fayed.
(iii) Sir
Andrew failed to register, as he should have done,
this election campaign donation.
(iv) Sir
Andrew failed to declare his interests in dealings
with Ministers and officials over House of Fraser, and, in one
case, gave a positively misleading explanation for his representations.
Sir Michael
Grylls
(i) Sir
Michael received payments from Mr Greer (though not
in cash) which were neither introduction commissions nor fees
associated with the Unitary Tax Campaign.
(ii) It
is not possible to conclude that these payments originated from
Mr Al Fayed, although Sir Michael actively participated
in the Greer lobbying operation.
(iii) Sir
Michael deliberately misled the Select Committee on
Members' Interests in 1990 by seriously understating the number
of commission payments he had received; and by omitting to inform
them of other fees received from Mr Greer.
(iv) Sir
Michael persistently failed to declare his interests
in dealings with Ministers and officials over the House of Fraser.
(v) Sir
Michael's action in taking a commission payment for
introducing a constituent to Mr Greer was unacceptable.
(vi) There
is insufficient evidence to show that Sir Michael
solicited business for Mr Greer in expectation of commission payments.
Sir Peter
Hordern
(i) Sir
Peter had no obligation to disclose to Ministers the
interests of his colleagues; and, although the extent to which
he declared his own interests on House of Fraser matters fell
well short of the terms of the 1974 Resolution, there is no evidence
that Ministers and officials were misled by this.
(ii) The
spirit of the rules would have been better observed had Sir
Peter made a separate Register entry in respect of
Mr Al Fayed's hospitality, but this omission was not improper
by the standards accepted at the time.
(iii) The
allegation that Sir Peter tabled questions for
cash is without substance and has been withdrawn.
Mr Brown
(i) Mr
Brown failed to register an introduction payment from
Mr Greer in relation to US Tobacco.
(ii) Mr
Brown persistently and deliberately failed to declare
his interests in dealing with Ministers and officials over the
Skoal Bandits issue.
(iii) Mr
Brown has expressed regret for these omissions.
Mr Malone
- Mr
Malone has no case to answer.
Lady
Olga Maitland
- Lady
Olga has no case to answer.
Recipients
of Election Donations
(i) The
following Members have no case to answer:
Mr Robert Atkins, Mr Alan
Beith, Mr Vivian Bendall, Mr John Bowis, Sir Graham Bright, Mr
Nirj Deva, Sir Anthony Durant, Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody, Mr Doug Hoyle,
Mr Norman Lamont, Mr David Mellor, Mr Michael Portillo, Mr David
Shaw, Mr Chris Smith, Sir Malcolm Thornton, Sir Gerard Vaughan
and Sir John Wheeler.
(ii) However,
the rules governing the registration of election donations should
be reviewed.
Gordon Downey
27 March 1997
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