Mr Peter Hain: second report of session 2008-09 report and appendix, together with formal minutes

House of Commons papers 183 2008-09

Corporate Author:: Great Britain Parliament House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges
Author:: Sir George Young (chairman)
Publisher:: TSO (The Stationery Office)

In the Committee's 5th Report of Session 2007-08 (HCP 324, ISBN 9780215513540), published in February 2008, they informed the House that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards had submitted to the Committee a memorandum on the progress of an investigation of complaints that the Rt Hon Peter Hain, the Member for Neath, had failed to register in the Register of Members' Interests within the required time limit all the donations he received in respect of his campaign for election as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. The inquiry was suspended, whilst the police investigated the issue referred by the Electoral Commission. The police completed their inquiries and passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service in July 2008. It was not until December 2008 that the CPS announced there was insufficient evidence to charge Mr Hain with an offence under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The Commissioner resumed his inquiry on 9 December, now completed. The complaint against Mr Hain was brought by Mr David T C Davies, the Member for Monmouth. Mr Hain registered ten donations he received to his campaign in the period to May 2007 within the four-week deadline for registering such donations; these came to £77,000. He registered two further donations late, in November and December 2007, with a combined value of £10,000. He registered 17 further donations late in January 2008, the oldest of them dating back to April 2007 and the most recent to November. The donations registered in January 2008 totalled more than £103,000. The Commissioner has accepted Mr Hain's assessment that a change of personnel in his campaign team was an important factor in his failure to register donations to the campaign between May and November 2007 (the campaign ended on 24 June). The Commissioner has upheld the complaints that Mr Hain failed to register in time all the donations he received for his campaign for election as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. The Commissioner has accepted Mr Hain's assurances that all the donations he received had been registered by 11 January 2008. Mr Hain identified the oversight, he acted quickly and openly to address it, and that Mr Hain has both accepted responsibility for and rectified his errors. However, the Commissioner also concludes that Mr Hain's breach of the rules "was both serious and substantial." But the Committee accep

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