16. Letter to Ms Nadine Dorries MP
from the Commissioner, 9 February 2010
When I wrote to you on 2 February I said that I would
be back in touch when I had analysed the further information you
supplied in your letter of 25 January, including the diary evidence.
I am most grateful for this further information.
You will appreciate, I am sure, that I need to ensure
that I have reliable information on which to base my decision
about this complaint. That means that before I seek the advice
of the Department of Resources, I do need to ask you some further
questions, particularly in relation to the areas where your latest
evidence differs from earlier submissions.
I enclose a table[225]
which identifies the estimates of your overnight stays which you
gave me in your e-mail of 8 October, in your letter of 25 January
and in the highlighted days in the diary extracts you sent me
with the same letter.
I need to understand the reasons of the variations
in your estimates. In particular:
1. 2006-07—I asked you in my letter of 2 February
for a little more explanation about how the error occurred in
identifying on 8 October that you spent 111 nights in the constituency
when your letter of 25 January identified these as in effect,
London nights. I look forward to your response.
2. 2007-08—it would be helpful if you could
let me know why you omitted the 10 London nights from your e-mail
of 8 October, and whether these nights account for the 9 night
reduction in the constituency figure provided with your letter
of 25 January.
3. 2008-09—it would be helpful to know why
the estimates in your letter of 25 January differ so apparently
markedly from those in your e-mail of 8 October—namely,
36 more nights in your main home, 24 fewer nights in your constituency
home, 9 nights in London where there were none before and 21 fewer
nights elsewhere.
4. Diary evidence 2008-09—can you help me to
reconcile the overnight stays highlighted in your diary with your
own estimates in your letter of 25 January? The pink highlights
show 214 nights in your main home, 21 fewer nights than your estimate.
I am also unclear about what the 23 orange highlighted entries
for August 2008 and February 2009 signify in terms of the location
of your overnight stays.
5. Main home stays 2008-09—could you help me
on the pattern of your overnight stays in your main home? Your
letter of 25 January says you spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday
nights in your main home and you have highlighted these in your
diary. But there are an additional 76 main home nights on other
days of the week highlighted in your diary—on average between
one and two further nights each week. Was there any pattern to
these additional weekday nights?
Could you explain how, according to your diary highlights,
you spent each night in September 2008 in your main home when
according to your blog entry of 15 May 2009, your daughter attended
a [constituency] school from September that year?
6. 2009-10—you have provided me with diary
highlights for April 2009 but not for the remaining months—May
2009 to (I assume) January 2010—to set against the estimates
provided in your letter of 25 January. It would be very helpful
if you could do so. And it would be helpful to know what single
green highlight in the April 2009 diary represents.
Statements in the Telegraph article
of 18 May
In the light of the evidence you have now given me,
I should be grateful for any comments you may wish to make on
this article, and particularly on the following excerpts:
"But when questioned by the Daily
Telegraph about her second home, she posted a message on the
Internet in which she admitted her daughter goes to school in
the area, she keeps her pet dogs there and she spends many of
her weekends working there."
"[Ms Dorries] wrote, 'My children stay
with me when I am in the constituency. I keep the dogs at the
constituency address as I am often there on my own and it confuses
them being moved around.'"
It would be helpful if you could assist me reconciling
these statements—if accurately quoted—with what you
said in your letter of 25 January:
"... I know I am always at home on a Friday,
Saturday and Sunday. If I have anything to attend to in the constituency
I always drive home afterwards."
The Daily Telegraph references suggest that
you spend many of your weekends in your constituency home; your
letter says you spend your weekend nights, at least, in your main
home.
It would also be helpful to know whether some or
all of your children and your dogs travel with you between homes
on each occasion and, if not, who looks after them when they are
in your constituency home without you.
I can confirm that some of your neighbours have sent
me witness evidence which I am following up with them. When I
have completed this work I will let you see it.
Like you, I would like to resolve the inquiry as
soon as possible so I would be particularly grateful if you could
let me have a response to this letter within the next week. Thank
you for your help.
9 February 2010
225 See WE 17 below. Back
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