15. Letter to the Director of Operations,
Department of Resources from the Commissioner, 17 November 2009
I would welcome your help and advice on a complaint
I have received against Mr Jim Fitzpatrick MP in respect of his
use of House of Commons prepaid envelopes and notepaper to invite
some of his constituents to a coffee morning on crime and anti
social behaviour.
I enclose a copy of the complainant's letter of 3
September which I received on 29 September, together with the
invitation letter and the pre-paid House of Commons envelope in
which it was sent; a copy of my letter to Mr Fitzpatrick of 1
October; a copy of his response of 20 October; my letter to him
of 21 October; his letter to me of 28 October together with its
attachments; my letter to him of 4 November and his response of
12 November. I am not including appendices A to E of that letter
since I consider that this information is not necessary for my
inquiry, but I do enclose the letters included in appendix F.
In essence, the complaint is that Mr Fitzpatrick
used prepaid House of Commons envelopes to send unsolicited correspondence
to some of his constituents and may have drawn on his allowance
of original House stationery for the paper.
I have had a further letter from the complainant
about alleged previous dispatches. I enclose a copy of the complainant's
letter of 12 November, together with its attachments. I also attach
a copy of my responses of 17 November to the complainant and to
Mr Fitzpatrick. I will let you have a copy of Mr Fitzpatrick's
reply when I receive it so that you can take it into account in
your advice.
I would therefore welcome your comments and advice
on this matter. It would be helpful, in particular, to know whether,
taking account of the content, you consider that it was within
the rules for Mr Fitzpatrick to use his provided stationery allowance
to send an invitation letter to his constituents in the circumstances
described in his letters, and for the paper and, I assume, the
envelopes for the rest of the dispatch to have been funded from
the Communications Expenditure, although it does not appear to
have carried a funding imprint. It would also be helpful to know
if Mr Fitzpatrick has lodged a claim for this expenditure against
his Communications Expenditure and if it has been met. Any other
points you would wish to make to help me with this inquiry would
be appreciated.
I would welcome a response within the next three
weeks. Thank you for your help.
17 November 2009
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