23. Letter to Neighbour 2 (constituency)
from the Commissioner, 2 February 2010
Thank you for your letter of 23 January about Ms
Nadine Dorries MP.
I was grateful to you for providing this witness
information. I attach a note which sets out the procedure I follow
in taking evidence from witnesses. As you will see, since I am
undertaking an inquiry, I would ask that the evidence you have
sent me and our subsequent correspondence is not disclosed more
widely. My inquiries are subject to parliamentary privilege and
any evidence provided therefore should be treated as private and
confidential to the inquiry. Once my inquiry is completed, your
letter may be published along with the other evidence I have received
in the course of this inquiry.
In essence, the complaint into which I am inquiring
is that Ms Dorries wrongly identified her main home as her designated
second home for the purposes of her claims against the Additional
Costs Allowance.
The rules of the House of Commons as they were at
the time provided that a Member of Parliament's main home was
normally one where they spent more nights than any other. You
have told me that you believe that the statement allegedly made
by another neighbour that Ms Dorries "spends
eighty per cent of her time" at the
house in [constituency address 1] is "entirely
untrue". You have not however offered
me any alternative estimate of Ms Dorries' use of this property.
If you can reliably provide me with an estimate of the number
of nights which you believe Ms Dorries has spent at this property,
ideally by financial year, I would be grateful to receive it,
together with any information about the basis on which you made
that estimate.
Any other points you may wish to make to help me
with this inquiry would be very welcome.
It would be very helpful if you could let me have
a response to this letter within the next two weeks. I am likely
then to need to show it to Ms Dorries and give her an opportunity
to respond.
Thank you for your help with this matter.
2 February 2010
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