1. We have considered memoranda from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards on the complaints by Mr Francis Maude, Member for Horsham, against Mr Geoffrey Robinson, Member for Coventry North West. The Commissioner's memoranda are appended to this Report, together with a letter we have received from Mr Robinson. We have also taken oral evidence from Mr Robinson.[1]

2. We agree with the Commissioner in upholding the complaint in relation to Yamato Lock Inspection Systems Ltd, and share his view that this was a technical breach of the rules.

3. We agree with the Commissioner that Mr Robinson's interests in the Italian property companies did not require to be registered.

4. We agree with the Commissioner in upholding the complaint that Mr Robinson failed to register his shareholding in Stenbell Ltd until October 1997, although he had acquired it in February 1996. Mr Robinson has apologised to us for this. We note that he had not thought of Stenbell as a trading company (and therefore registrable), and that he said his failure to register was an oversight. He told us that he took no action of any kind in Parliament in relation to the company.

5. In the course of the compilation of the first Register of this Parliament, Mr Robinson was advised to register shareholdings which had been placed in a blind trust, and he immediately did so. During the period when Mr Robinson's interest in Stenbell was not registered, the company acquired a rights issue of 9,805,550 shares in TransTec plc from him and sold it to the Orion Trust, an offshore trust of which he was a discretionary beneficiary.[2] This was a significant transaction, which put beyond doubt that his shareholding in the company fell within the requirements of registration. It ought to have been registered.

6. Paragraph 15 of the Guide to the Rules relating to the Conduct of Members states:

"Companies which have not begun to trade or which have ceased trading need not be registered, either under this Category [Category 1 (directorships)] or under Category 9 (shareholdings). "Not trading" should, however, be interpreted in a strict sense; if a company is engaged in any transaction additional to those required by law to keep it in being, then a remunerated directorship in that company should be registered."

7. We acknowledge that the present failure to register preceded our previous Report. That Report took no account of trading by Stenbell.

8. In our last report on complaints against Mr Robinson, in which we found two instances of failure to register directorships, we concluded that he 'did not meet all the requirements of registration'.[3] The cumulative effect of the shortcomings identified in these two reports is such that we recommend that Mr Robinson should make an apology to the House by means of a personal statement.