Select Committee on Standards and Privileges Minutes of Proceedings Report


TUESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2001

  Members present:

  Sir George Young, in the Chair


Peter BottomleyMr Andrew Dismore
Mr Russell BrownMr Michael Jabez Foster
Ross Cranston

Ordered, That, pursuant to Standing Order No. 150, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards do attend the meeting.—(The Chairman.)

The Commissioner attended accordingly.

The Committee deliberated.

Draft Report [Complaint against Mr Roy Beggs], proposed by the Chairman, brought up and read.

Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.

Paragraphs 1 to 5 read and agreed to.

Resolved, That the Report be the Second Report of the Committee to the House.

Ordered, That the Chairman do make the Report to the House.

Ordered, That the memorandum from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards be appended to the Report.

Ordered, That the Appendix to the Report be reported to the House.—(The Chairman.)

  [See House of Commons Paper No. 319]

Draft Report [Complaint against Mr John Maxton], proposed by the Chairman, brought up and read.

Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.

Paragraphs 1 read and agreed to.

Paragraph 2 read, as follows:

"We have considered the further information which the Commissioner has placed before us, which includes a letter which Mr Maxton wrote to the General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party on 10 November 1999. After a thorough examination of this information, and after careful consideration of the Commissioner's recommendation that we take oral evidence on oath from Mr Maxton and several other possible witnesses, we have concluded that the evidential value of that which is now available to us, and which was not available to the former Committee, is not sufficient to justify a review of the conclusions which our predecessors reached in the Report on the original complaint against Mr Maxton, which was extensively investigated by the Commissioner and where our predecessors rightly criticised the role of the press. We also felt that little purpose would be served by calling witnesses before us. Accordingly we have decided not to take this matter any further."

Amendment proposed, in line 3, to leave out from "1999" to the end of the paragraph and add the words "The Committee invites Mr John Maxton, Ms Lesley Quinn, Mr John Rowan, Mr Chris Winslow and Mr Jonathan Upton to give oral evidence on these matters."—(Peter Bottomley.)

Question put, That the Amendment be made.

The Committee divided.

Ayes, 1

Peter Bottomley

Noes, 4

Mr Russell Brown

Ross Cranston

Mr Andrew Dismore

Mr Michael Jabez Foster

Paragraph agreed to.

Paragraph 3 read and agreed to.

Resolved, That the Report be the Third Report of the Committee to the House.

Ordered, That the Chairman do make the Report to the House.

Ordered, That the memorandum from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards be appended to the Report.

Ordered, That the Appendix to the Report be reported to the House.—(The Chairman.)

  [See House of Commons Paper No. 320]

The Committee further deliberated.

  [Adjourned till Tuesday 6 November at half-past Ten o'clock.

  


 
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Prepared 31 January 2003