APPENDIX: REPORT FROM THE SUB-COMMITTEE
ON LORDS' INTERESTS: COMPLAINT AGAINST LORD FRASER OF CARMYLLIE
BY MR NORMAN LAMB MP
Background
1. The House's code of conduct requires that the
register of Lords' Interests be published in hard copy book-form
once a year, usually in July. As a preliminary to publication,
the Registrar of Lords' Interests circulates each member of the
House with a copy of their existing register entry and invites
them to update it as necessary.
2. In July 2009 Lord Fraser of Carmyllie wrote in
response to the Registrar's stocktaking letter as follows:
"I am conducting an inquiry for Trafigura into
alleged dumping of slops in Cote d'Ivoire. This is taking very
much longer than first anticipated. Instead of one [payment] in
spring 2007 I have received two tranches from them with a third
later this year or sometime in 2010. It has been suggested to
me that this is "regular remunerated employment" and
should appear in the Register. I am not sure about this. I am
self-employed for this purpose and have a VAT number and the payments
have been irregular to date and will continue to be so.
The notion that it is regular remuneration stems
from Lord Woolf's advising BAe on a code of ethics. This took
a year and he declared it as such. With respect I think he was
wrong although I have no idea how he was paid nor at what intervals.
If, however, what I am undertaking does require to
be declared, I have no problem. It is hardly a secret and for
the purposes of the inquiry I have a website."
3. The Registrar advised Lord Fraser that this was
an interest that should in his opinion be registered and Lord
Fraser did so on 1 July 2009, although he did not accept that
he was required by the Code of Conduct to do so.
4. It was not practical to republish the register
during the stocktaking exercise which continued until mid-July,
and so Lord Fraser's revised register entry recording his inquiry
for Trafigura appeared in public for the first time in the hard
copy volume of the register, on 21 July. At most other times of
the year, a Member's amended register entry is publicly available
on the internet within a week of the registrar being notified
of the new interest.
The complaint
5. A letter was received from Mr Norman Lamb MP on
6 July 2009 complaining that Lord Fraser had failed to register
a relevant financial interest, namely, the remuneration he received
in conducting the inquiry for Trafigura Limited. Mr Lamb asked
the Sub-Committee to investigate this alleged breach of the House's
code of conduct.
6. Before referring the matter to the Sub-Committee,
the registrar wrote back to Mr Lamb pointing out that the interest
had in fact been registered, shortly before receipt of his complaint.
The registrar asked Mr Lamb whether in these circumstances he
wished to press the complaint.
7. After the parliamentary summer recess Mr Lamb
replied that he did wish to have the matter referred to the Sub-Committee
because the interest had not been registered within the one month
period required by paragraph 7 of the code of conduct.
The Sub-Committee's findings
8. The question that the Sub-Committee has had to
decide is whether Lord Fraser was required to register his inquiry
for Trafigura.
9. We have noted that the present code of conduct
requires Members to register "regular remunerated employment"
(paragraph 12(f)). In our opinion Lord Fraser's work for Trafigura
was not regular employment. It did not require recurrent work
in accordance with a pre-arranged pattern or agreed principle:
he was employed as an independent contractor on a one-off commission
to produce a specific report. Because of constraints imposed by
on-going legal proceedings for which Lord Fraser was not responsible,
completion of some of the work was delayed; but the delay and
the extended time over which the work was done do not in our view
constitute regular employment.
10. Moreover, the evidence we have considered in
investigating the complaint makes it clear that the payments made
to Lord Fraser for the work he did for Trafigura over this period
of time were not regular: indeed, only two payments appear to
have been made.
Conclusion
11. The Sub-Committee has therefore concluded, on
the basis of the present code of conduct, that Lord Fraser was
not required to register his work for Trafigura, and that he did
so only to be helpful and in the interests of transparency.
12. It follows that we find that Lord Fraser has
not breached the House's code of conduct, and we reject the complaint
against him. Given our finding that the interest was not required
to be registered, it follows that we also reject the complaint
that the interest was not registered within the 30-day period
required by paragraph 7 of the code.
13. We take this opportunity to remind Members
of the House that the House has adopted a new code of conduct
with effect from 1 April 2010, and that this new code requires
Members to register all employment outside the House.
| 
