APPENDIX 7
Letter to Ms Maria Fernandes
from the Clerk of the Committee on Standards
and Privileges
The Committee on Standards and Privileges has received
a report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards on
the complaints made against Mr Keith Vaz.
I should emphasise that the remit of both the Commissioner
and the Committee is confined to the conduct of Members of Parliament.
Neither you nor your practice is under investigation. Nonetheless
there are a number of passages in the Commissioner's memorandum
which refer to you, and before it considers the memorandum in
any detail the Committee would like to give you an opportunity
to comment on those passages if you wish to do so. The relevant
extracts are enclosed. I would be grateful if you could let me
have any comments you wish to make by 3 January 2002.
There are in addition a number of questions to which
the Committee would like answers. Some of these are questions
put to you by the Commissioner, others are about information you
have already volunteered to provide.
Mapesbury Communications Limited
The Committee would like:
1. The date at which you became actively involved
with Mapesbury Communications Limited and the activities it was
engaged in throughout its life.
2. A list of all events organised by Mapesbury
Communications Limited, with dates, funding arrangements and locations
(the Committee notes, in particular, that at your meeting with
the Commissioner on 4 July 2001 you undertook to 'rack your brains'
to remember at which location in central Birmingham the 'visa
policy event' took place); and in particular the dates of the
visa policy event and the Work Permit Conference held at the St
James's Court Hotel).
3. Details of any and all work carried out by
Mapesbury Communications Limited for the Asian Business Network.
4. The total sum represented by the list of
payments you supplied to the Committee on 10 May 2001, the names
and addresses of the all the organisations appearing on that list,
the period it covers and the level of payment over which an entry
on the list was made.
5. The payments made by Mapesbury Communications
Limited to employees and directors: if your records are unavailable,
and your accountants are unable to help you, the employees and
fellow directors, your bank or the Inland Revenue may be able
to assist.
6. The list of VAT payments you undertook to
provide in your letter to the then Chairman of this Committee
of 20 April 2001.
7. The payments made by Mapesbury Communications
Ltd to Wildberry, the printers, with dates.
Mrs Matin/Ahmed
The Committee note that on 10 September 2001 the
Commissioner wrote to you to ask you to explain an apparent discrepancy
in the information she had received.
On 4 July 2001, when you met the Commissioner, you
said that you had not represented Mrs Mary Matin/Ahmed in any
capacity. The Commissioner has been informed by the Immigration
Service that Fernandes Vaz informed them that they represented
Mrs Matin/Ahmed.
In your letter of 13 October 2001, you said "With
regard to Mrs Matin, you have asked me to explain a discrepancy
without stating what the discrepancy is. I maintain what I said
at the meeting".
The Committee would be grateful if you would explain
this apparent contradiction.
I would be grateful for a reply by 3 January 2001.
19 December 2001
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