Greg Hands Made to Apologise to Commons Over Expenses Breach

Commissioner concludes he deliberately stalled inquiry until after election


Greg Hands making his apology by video

Greg Hands, MP for Chelsea and Fulham, has been required to make a public apology to the House of Commons for a breach of the rules on the use of official stationery.

In April 2019 Mr Hands sent a letter to around 7,000 of his constituents, using House of Commons stationery and post-paid envelopes. It contained an update on his activities as an MP including on issues such as Charing Cross Hospital; Heathrow expansion; crime and policing; local schools; and Transport for London’s proposed bus cuts.

MPs are not allowed to use House of Commons notepaper to update constituents in this way. They can do so if they are responding to a communication they have received on a specific issue.

After the matter was referred to parliament’s Committee on Standards, Mr Hands responded to a letter from the Commissioner, Kathryn Stone OBE, in June 2019 that his letter had been a response to several different petitions that were being run locally at the same time and that he was seeking to save money by dealing with a range of concerns in one letter.

He told the Commissioner, “None of the content was political, no party or parties featured, and no candidates or any elections. In my view, this was an entirely appropriate use of resources in keeping residents informed on issues that they had raised with me.”

 

The Commissioner wrote to Mr Hands in September 2019 to inform him that she considered the mailing in question to be a breach of the rules because its content “could reasonably be viewed as a general update or a newsletter”. She added that she considered the breach to be “at the less serious end of the spectrum” and invited him to agree to resolution which would require an apology, an acknowledgement that the relevant rule had been breached, and reimbursement to the House of the cost of the mailing which was £4,865.55.

Mr Hands wrote back to the Commissioner saying that he agreed to this resolution but that he regarded the current rules as “bizarre and extremely cost ineffective”.

In his submission to the Committee Mr Hands stated, “I believe there to be a major flaw within the rules on Members’ use of parliamentary stationery.

“According to these rules, it seems that a constituent or constituents who raise one or more issues, cannot then receive a response which includes other issues. This might make sense in theory, but in practice it can become more expensive to address multiple issues separately, thereby negating the point of the rules in the first place, namely to protect public funds.”

In further correspondence between Mr Hands and the Commissioner’s office, on 31 October 2019 he agreed to repay the money owed, however on 4 November he contacted her again to say that he did not wish to proceed with the rectification process. He stated that upon further reflection he wish to appear before the Committee on Standards to argue his case. Around that time there was widespread discussion that a General Election was about to be called. Parliament was dissolved on 6 November.

The Commissioner was therefore unable to conclude the case before the general election of December 2019 using the rectification procedure.

The Commissioner said in her ruling, “Given that Mr Hands has not questioned my interpretation of the current rules, and his earlier commitment to raise his concerns about the rules with the Administration Committee, I was surprised by his decision to withdraw his acknowledgement of a breach and to ask to appear before the Standards Committee. Whilst this course of action [was] open to him, it has extended the duration of this inquiry significantly. Had the rectification process concluded, this matter could have been drawn to a close, and an outcome published, before the end of the last Parliament. Unnecessarily extending inquiries regarding conduct in public office is not in the wider public interest and is unlikely to inspire public confidence that Parliament holds itself open to rigorous and expeditious scrutiny.”

She added, “It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr Hands may well have been motivated by a desire to avoid the embarrassment of having to make a public apology for breaking parliamentary rules during a general election campaign.”

Mr Hands was required to make his apology to the House by video. In it he states, “I am therefore today taking the earliest opportunity to offer the House my apology for the initial breach of the rules and for insisting on an unnecessary reference to the committee thereby extending the length of the enquiry. I undertake to reimburse the House for the relevant costs of my mailing which the commissioner has assessed as £4,865.55.”

May 26, 2020

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