Annex 47
File note by the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards
Mr John Maxton
Telephone conversation with Elizabeth Filkin, 22 March 2000
8am 22 March 2000 my pager went off asking me to
ring John Maxton immediately. He asked my if I had seen The
Herald this morning, to which I replied no, he said there`s
a story on the front page of The Herald that says you are
now conducting a full inquiry. I said I had been conducting a
full inquiry as he knew since January. He said the story had obviously
come from my office. I said it may well have done I had been informed
by my office that The Herald had contacted them and that
they had given them the information that the investigation was
continuing as they would normally do with any journalist`s inquiry
where the matter was in the public domain. He implied that I had
contacted The Herald after his conversation with me and
I expressed myself crossly to inform him that what he was implying
was quite inaccurate, that my pa had given information to The
Herald but not until after I had seen him as far as I was
aware, and certainly she knew nothing of the content of our conversation
and certainly I had not been in contact with The Herald.
He said what was I going to do to put it right. I said as far
as I knew there was nothing to put right and so he said he would
contact The Herald and tell them that the nature of the
inquiry had not changed since January. I said he could do that
but what he should say was that I had been conducting a full inquiry
into these matters since January—if he wished and that I
would gladly confirm that to The Herald if they wanted
to contact me.
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