Annex 29B
Letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards from the Rt Hon Dr John Reid MP
I have considered the terms of your draft report.
I do not accept its conclusions, many of its apparent findings
in fact or the general methodology you have employed. I did not
act in the manner specified in the complaint nor in the manner
you suggest in your draft report, nor did I participate in any
other misuse of Fees Office funds.
Your lack of response throughout the conduct of the
inquiry to many of my requests for information and for procedural
fairness persuade me that any detailed response to your draft
report is pointless.
Accordingly, I have no alternative but to address
my response to the Committee which I shall do.
As regards your retention of the tapes I have requested,
my advisers will be in touch with your office concerning access
to these.
25 September 2000
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