Standards and Privileges Committee
The Standards and Privileges Committee of the United Kingdom House of Commons was established in 1995 to replace the earlier Committee of Privileges. Ten Members of Parliament sit to make recommendations to the House on complaints of breach of Parliamentary privilege. It was itself replaced on 7 January 2013, when it was split into the Committee on Standards and the Committee of Privileges.[1]
The Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to oversee the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. It examined the arrangements for the compilation, maintenance and accessibility of the Register of Members' Interests and considered specific complaints made in relation to the registering or declaring of interests and any matter relating to the conduct of Members, including specific complaints in relation to alleged breaches in the Code of Conduct which were drawn to the Committee's attention by the Commissioner.
On 9 December 2010 Geoff Hoon along with Stephen Byers and Richard Caborn were banned from entering the Parliamentary Estate; the Committee banned Hoon for five years as his was the most serious breach, whilst Byers received two years and Caborn six months.[2] This was due to the 2010 cash for influence scandal.
Membership
As of 12 December 2012, the members of the committee were as follows:
| Member | Party | Constituency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rt Hon Kevin Barron MP (Chair) | Labour | Rother Valley | |
| Sir Paul Beresford MP | Conservative | Mole Valley | |
| Annette Brooke MP | Liberal Democrat | Mid Dorset and North Poole | |
| Tom Clarke MP | Labour | Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill | |
| Geoffrey Cox MP | Conservative | Torridge and West Devon | |
| Robert Buckland MP | Conservative | South Swindon | |
| Christopher Chope MP | Conservative | Christchurch | |
| Fiona O'Donnell MP | Labour | East Lothian | |
| Heather Wheeler MP | Conservative | South Derbyshire | |
| Alan Whitehead MP | Labour | Southampton Test | |
Source: Standards and Privileges Committee
Changes
Occasionally, the House of Commons ordered changes to be made in terms of membership of select committees, as proposed by the Committee of Selection. Such changes are shown below.
| Date | Outgoing Member & Party |
Constituency | → | New Member & Party |
Constituency | Source | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 October 2010 | Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative) | Lancaster and Fleetwood | → | Matthew Hancock (Conservative) | West Suffolk | Hansard | ||
| 22 November 2010 | Jim Cunningham MP (Labour) | Coventry South | → | Tom Blenkinsop MP (Labour) | Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland |
Hansard | ||
| 7 November 2011 | Tom Blenkinsop MP (Labour) | Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland |
→ | Julie Hilling MP (Labour) | Bolton West | Hansard | ||
| 12 December 2012 | Matthew Hancock MP (Conservative) | West Suffolk | → | Robert Buckland MP (Conservative) | South Swindon | Hansard | ||
| Oliver Heald MP (Conservative) | North East Hertfordshire | Christopher Chope MP (Conservative) | Christchurch | |||||
| Julie Hilling MP (Labour) | Bolton West | → | Fiona O'Donnell MP (Labour) | East Lothian | ||||
See also
References
- ↑ "Standards Committee". parliament.uk. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
- ↑ "Three Former MPs Face Parliamentary Ban".
External links
- Standards and Privileges committee at the UK Parliament website