Select Committee on Standards and Privileges First Report


APPENDIX 99

Letter from Mr Michael Scholar CB, Permanent Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards

  Thank you for your letter of 29 January.

  I think that, if an MP had declared a financial interest in the course of dealings with Ministers or the Department, that fact would normally be mentioned in our papers, because it would be relevant information which might affect the way in which Ministers or the Department responded to the MP.

  But there is no formal Departmental practice requiring such a matter to be recorded, nor do I think that it would be right for the Department to make a practice of enquiring of an MP who has dealings with the Department whether he or she has a relevant financial interest. That would seem to be a matter for the MP himself, or for the House of Commons, rather than for the Department.

M C Scholar

5 February 1997



 
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