1 Introduction
1. In 2004 the Public Administration Select Committee
conducted a major inquiry into the honours system.[1]
Earlier this year we decided to undertake a further evidence session
following up this report with a particular focus on the propriety
aspects of the honours system. Allegations that honours were being
offered in return for loans to party funds and sponsorship of
the Government's city academy schools prompted us to extend this
into a substantive inquiry into propriety and honours. On 14 March
we announced that, as part of our current inquiry into ethics
and standards in public life, the Committee would investigate
whether the machinery for the scrutiny of honours and peerages
for political service was working.
2. In a separate development, following complaints
by a Member of this House, the police began investigating allegations
of the sale of honours under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses)
Act 1925. We have been meeting privately with representatives
of the police and the Crown Prosecution Service and have taken
legal advice about the possibility that our inquiry, if conducted
wholly in public, might prejudice their investigations. We are
grateful to Mr Christopher Sallon QC, for his expert advice to
us on this issue.
3. The matters under investigation are central to
the political and parliamentary process. They touch on how individuals
qualify for membership of the legislature and on how political
parties raise funds. Parliament has an interest and a duty in
ensuring that these matters are conducted properly. We are looking
at the implications for the honours system and the Constitutional
Affairs Committee are considering the issue of party funding.
After careful consideration, we concluded that we should continue
with our inquiry notwithstanding the police investigation, and
produce an interim report. We have taken evidence from the Cabinet
Secretary and members of the House of Lords Appointments Commission
in public and report on the scrutiny of the honours system on
the basis of that evidence and other written submissions.
1 Public Administration Select Committee, Fifth Report
of Session 2003-04, A Matter of Honour: Reforming the Honours
System, HC 212 Back
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