APPENDIX 3
Letter to Mr Duncan Wiggetts of Herbert
Smith Solicitors
from the Parliamentary Commissioner for
Standards
As you know my report on complaints about Mr Mandelson
was put before the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges
yesterday.
The Committee were grateful for the information you
had provided but decided that before concluding their report they
needed further details.
Please would you let me know the following from your
inquiries about the mortgage application process:
1. In relation to question D on the application
form, Commitments, what questions did the branch manager
ask Mr Mandelson? What were his replies in particular to D1, D3
and D5?
2. How did the branch manager explain to Mr Mandelson
that he needed to know all Mr Mandelson's financial commitments?
3. During the mortgage interview, or at any other
time, did Mr Mandelson mention his home in Hartlepool or his mortgage
on it?
4. If he mentioned it, why is it not on the form?
5. Did Britannia Building Society know of the
Hartlepool mortgage before providing the mortgage on Northumberland
Place?
6. Did the branch manager or the Society tell
Mr Mandelson at any time, orally or in writing, that he should
inform them if his circumstances changed?
7. Did the branch manager believe that Mr Mandelson
understood he should inform Britannia Building Society if his
circumstances changed?
8. At what date did the Society learn of:
(a) the Hartlepool mortgage;
(b) the loan from Mr Robinson and its terms?
9. Do Messrs Wegg-Prosser and Farmer act as agents
for Britannia Building Society? In this transaction did they act
for Britannia Building Society as well as Mr Mandelson?
I would be grateful to receive your reply by the
afternoon of Tuesday 4 May so that I may report to the Committee.
I am sorry that I must trouble you further on this
matter and, in anticipation, thank you for your help.
28 April 1999
| 
