APPENDIX
Complaint against Mr Ken Livingstone
MP
THE
COMPLAINT
1. Mr John Jones, of Shepshed, Leicestershire,
wrote to me on 19 December 1999 (Annex A) drawing my attention
to two alleged breaches by Mr Ken Livingstone, Member for Brent
East, of the Rules for the Registration of Members' Interests:
(i) that as a speaker for a company which
hires people for events and after dinner speeches, Speakers for
Business, Mr Livingstone had been receiving regular payments for
parliamentary services of "up to £1600" for each
event and had not registered this income;
(ii) that he had not registered either the source
or proportion of income which he had received for services as
a Member of Parliament and which had been paid to his company,
Localaction Ltd.
REGISTER
ENTRIES
2. Since his election in 1987, Mr Livingstone
has consistently registered his directorship of Localaction Ltd,
which he described as a "company formed to cover the publication
of my books, Socialist Economic Bulletin and other writing and
media work". In September 1996, on the one occasion he received
a dividend from Localaction Ltd, he also registered his shareholding
of more than 1% of its issued share capital.
REGISTRATION
REQUIREMENTS
3. Since the inception of the Register in
1975 Members have been required to register all sources of remunerated
employment, though not the sums received. The Guide to the Rules
relating to the Conduct of Members provides (para 16) the following
guidance:
"When registering employment, Members should
not simply state the employer company and the nature of its business,
but should also indicate the nature of the post which they hold
in the company or the services for which the company remunerates
them."
4. From November 1995 a Member engaging
in outside employment "which involves the provision of services
in the capacity as a Member of Parliament" has been required
to deposit with the Commissioner for Standards a written agreement,
which would be available for public inspection, including figures
for remuneration in bands of (i) up to £1000 (ii) £1001-£5000
(iii) £5,001-£10,000, and thereafter in bands of £5000.
These figures are published against the entry in the Register.
5. The Guide to the Rules gives the following
guidance (para. 36, quoting para. 41 of the Second Report of the
Select Committee on Standards in Public Life):
"The new requirement for employment agreements
to be put in writing will apply principally to any arrangement
whereby a Member may offer advice about parliamentary matters.
We think it right, however, that it should also include frequent,
as opposed to merely occasional, commitments outside Parliament
which arise directly from membership of the House. For example,
a regular, paid newspaper column or television programme would
have to be the subject of a written agreement, but ad hoc current
affairs or news interviews or intermittent panel appearances would
not."
BACKGROUND
6. In 1996 Mr Livingstone approached the
then Commissioner for advice on the application of the new rule
to Localation Ltd. He confirmed that, apart from a regular commitment
to lecture on politics to overseas students at Richmond College,
the American International University in London (for which he
deposited an employment agreement, and which has since been discontinued)
"my other activities are all one-off after dinner speeches
or articles for papers. Nothing is on a regular basis". On
the basis of that information, the then Commissioner accepted
that Mr Livingstone did not need to deposit other employment agreements
(Annex B).
7. On 22 December 1999, I wrote to Mr Livingstone
asking him (i) how regularly he carried out speaking engagements
for Speakers for Business (ii) whether these related to parliamentary
or public affairs (iii) what was the normal payment for such a
speech (iv) what was his income from this source in the last financial
year.
MR
LIVINGSTONE'S
RESPONSE
8. Mr Livingstone told me that he undertook
speaking engagements for about half a dozen agencies and a column
on public affairs for The Independent, all relating to Parliament,
and that he writes a restaurant column for the Evening Standard.
Fees from all these sources are paid to Localaction Ltd.
9. He wrote to me on 10 February 2000 (Annex
C) and provided me with a breakdown of the income of £94,963
received by Localaction Ltd from 30 June 1998 and 30 June 1999,
which included the following bodies from whom he received remuneration
on more than one occasion:
| — | Evening Standard for seven columns
| £14,549 |
| — | Independent for ten columns
| £11,550 |
| — | Prime Performers for six speeches
| £9,286 |
| — | Speakers for Business for three speeches
| £7,518 |
| — | Interphiz for four speeches
| £6,643 |
| — | Commercial Casting for two speeches
| £4,090 |
| — | Norman Phillips for two speeches
| £3,040 |
| — | Right Address for two speeches
| £3,040 |
10. Mr Livingstone told me that his speaking engagements had
continued at a similar rate for a similar set of companies until
the end of 1999, and he later provided me with a similar breakdown
from July 1999-February 2000. This showed that, within the total
of £126,029 for this period, he had received a further £18,108
from the Evening Standard, £12,250 from The Independent,
£1617 from Prime Performers for one speech, £29,387
from Speakers for Business for at least seven speeches, £1500
from Interphiz for one speech, £1540 from Norman Phillips
for one speech and £1786 from Right Address for one speech.
In addition, over the complete period from 30 June 1998 to 29
February 2000, he had been paid £12,514 by JLA for five speeches,
£9368 from CSA for five speeches and £10,813 by Diana
Boulter for four speeches.
ANALYSIS AND
CONCLUSIONS
11. The Rules make it clear that all sources of paid employment
outside the House must be registered and no distinction is
made between payments made directly to Members and fees received
by companies on their behalf. Members are not required to disclose
the rate of remuneration in most instances. This is only necessary
when the employment "involves the provision of services
in the capacity as a Member of Parliament". Members are
required to specify the services for which they are remunerated.
12. Between June 1998 and 1999 Mr Livingstone carried out
36 speaking engagements, including 28 on behalf of a variety of
agencies for each of which he was paid a minimum of £1500.
While his description of Localaction Ltd in the Register includes
"writing and media work", it does not mention lectures
or speeches. In my view, Mr Livingstone's entry should have included
such information and his current Register entry is therefore deficient.
13. Mr Livingstone believed that, having cleared his Register
entry with the then Commissioner in 1996, it was still in accordance
with the Rules. However analysis of the payments made to Localaction
Ltd between June 1998 and June 1999 demonstrates that the rule
on employment agreements applies to a number of his regular commitments,
including his regular public affairs column for The Independent.
14. While his individual speeches are given to different audiences
and are in that sense one-off activities, his remunerated employment
with at least four agencies, Speakers for Business, Prime Performers,
Interphiz and Right Address is regular and therefore brings him
within this requirement. He has accepted my advice that all these
sources of income need to be registered separately with a clear
description of their activities and that he must deposit an employment
agreement showing his annual remuneration in the appropriate band.
15. Mr Livingstone is not required to deposit an employment
agreement for his restaurant column in the Evening Standard because
its subject matter "is wholly unrelated to parliamentary
or public affairs". As a major source of earnings, however,
it requires a separate entry in the Register.
MATTER FOR
CONSIDERATION
16. The Committee may wish to consider whether, in cases of
this kind, any more detailed disclosure is required.
17. The main purpose of the Register is "to provide information
of any pecuniary interest or other material benefit which a Member
receives which might reasonably be thought by others to influence
his or her actions, speeches or votes in Parliament, or actions
taken in his or her capacity as a Member of Parliament."
Such influence could equally well be exercised by a body which
is willing to pay a Member a substantial fee for a speaking engagement
as by the provider of any other form of employment or benefit.
18. While the Rules specify the financial thresholds above
which gifts, benefits and hospitality must be registered, no such
figure is set for the registration of remuneration for employment.
19. While some Members list each of their speaking engagements
in the Register, the majority submit general entries such as "occasional
fees for newspaper articles, broadcasting appearances, lectures
etc", which give no indication of the income from these activities
or the bodies providing the remuneration.
20. As most Members are asked from time to time to carry out
remunerated speaking engagements, my office has always taken the
view that it would be unreasonable to expect every occasion to
be registered individually when the fee is small. If asked for
advice, we have taken the main purpose of the Register as our
guide and recommended that, when fees of £500 or more are
received, either singly or cumulatively, from a single source,
both the event and the source should be specified in the Register;
but there is no written guidance in the Guide to the Rules. The
Committee may take the view that some written guidance on this
point would be helpful to Members.
21. Though most Members include income from newspaper articles,
speeches etc as remunerated employment (in category 2 of the Register),
Mr Livingstone's earnings from these sources are paid to his company.
Detailed information about the individual providers of his fees
could alternatively be entered as clients (in category 3), which
requires Members who are directors of companies to register "any
provision to clients of services which depend essentially upon,
or arise out of, the Member's position as a Member of Parliament."
CONCLUSIONS
22. I uphold the following components of Mr Jones' complaint:
(i) Mr Livingstone should have made a comprehensive entry
in the Register to cover all the services he provides through
Localaction.
(ii) Although the Rules for Members do not require Mr Livingstone
to give the total remuneration he receives for his services in
his capacity as a Member of Parliament which is paid into Localaction,
they do require him to register, in appropriate bands, the remuneration
which he receives from each company to which he regularly provides
such services. He should have done so for The Independent, Prime
Performers, Speakers for Business, Interphiz, JLA, CSA, Diana
Boulter and probably for Norman Phillips and Right Address.
(iii) Mr Livingstone was also required to deposit with my
office employment agreements with these employers from the point
at which he began to provide these services regularly.
(iv) Mr Livingstone should have made a separate Register entry
for his Evening Standard column.
8 March 2000
Elizabeth Filkin
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