Select Committee on Standards and Privileges Ninth Report


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





 
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