16. Letter to Rt Hon Jack Straw MP
from the Commissioner, 26 November 2008
Thank you for your letter of 21 November in response
to my letters of 11 and 13 November about this complaint in respect
of a dinner held in your constituency to mark the 25th
anniversary of your election as a Member of Parliament.
I was most grateful to receive this. I believe that
I have nearly all the information I need in order to reach my
conclusion on this complaint. There are two final points, however,
on which your clarification would be most helpful. Could you first
confirm my understanding of your answer to the second question
I asked, which is that you were aware of the company's donation
of £3,000 to the dinner at or near the time it was made,
in April 2004?
Secondly, I see from the Registrar's files that you
were sent a copy of your full register entry following a new entry
you made on 30 January 2007. I enclose a copy. That entry did
not of course include any reference to the donation for your 2004
dinner. Could you let me know whether you recall checking that
entry and, if you did so, can you help me on why you think the
absence of the donation was not picked up at that stage?
I have decided that I should prepare a short memorandum
for the Committee on Standards and Privileges on this complaint.
Once I have your response to this letter, I shall start preparing
the factual sections of my memorandum. I will show you these sections
in draft so that you can comment on their accuracy. Once I have
your response, I will then add my conclusions and submit the full
memorandum to the Clerk to the Committee, who will let you have
a copy in advance of the Committee's meeting for any comments
you may wish to make.
I note that you would like to make a late registration
under the rectification procedure. Rectification at this stage
would not be possible since I will be submitting a memorandum
to the Committee on Standards and Privileges. You may, however,
make an ordinary late entry if you so wish. Such an entry would
not be in heavy type and would not be identified as having been
made under the rectification procedure. I am asking the Registrar
to get in touch with you to discuss this.
I am not copying my correspondence to the Electoral
Commission since, as you will appreciate, I am considering only
the requirements under the Code of Conduct for Members and the
associated rules of the House and because of course our exchanges
are at this stage subject to Parliamentary privilege.
I am grateful for your help on this matter.
26 November 2008
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