I have received a complaint from Councillor Sutton about your "Parliamentary Report" recently circulated to your constituents. I enclose a copy of Councillor Sutton's letter of 11 April setting out his complaint and of the enclosures to which it refers.

You will see that the complaint concerns three things:

1.  the timing of the Report's release, said to be hard up against the start of the local election campaign. It is alleged that some of the leaflets were actually delivered during the election period;

2.  the promotion of Mr …, who I understand is the Conservative candidate in a highly marginal ward in the local election, through his appearance alongside you in a photograph on page 1 of the Report.

3.  the inclusion within the Report of a separate Conservative Party survey of Katesgrove Ward when the Report was delivered in that ward.

As you know, paragraph 14 of the Code of Conduct for Members approved by the House says:

"Members shall at all times ensure that their use of expenses, allowances, facilities and services provided from the public purse is strictly in accordance with the rules laid down on these matters, and that they observe any limits placed by the House on the use of such expenses, allowances, facilities and services."

The imprint at the foot of the back page of your Parliamentary Report indicates that it was financed using money provided from your Incidental Expenses Provision (IEP). The guidelines on publications funded from the Parliamentary Allowances published by the House's Department of Finance and Administration which were in force prior to this month—a copy of which I enclose—contain the following provisions which appear relevant to Councillor Sutton's complaint:

a)  Paragraph 5 provides that:

"No party political or campaigning material is allowable in any part of a publication funded, in whole or in part, from the allowances."

b)  Paragraph 8 says that:

"Parliamentary newsletters and other publications may be included in the same mail drop as any political material but it must be placed in a separate envelope or cover. The IEP should not be used to meet the cost of distributing the non parliamentary material."

c)  Paragraph 11 says that you must not use IEP funded publications:

• "to promote, criticise or campaign for or against anyone seeking election
• for the purpose of advancing perspectives or arguments with the intention of promoting the interests of any political party or organisation you support, or damaging the interests of any other such party or organisation."

In addition to the three matters identified in Councillor Sutton's complaint, I note that the header on page 1 of your newsletter includes not only the Conservative Party logo but the attribution "Reading East Conservatives". The logo is also reproduced on pages 3 and 4 of the "Parliamentary Report".

I should be grateful for your comments on each of the three points identified by Councillor Sutton and on the matters mentioned in the previous paragraph. In giving your response to the complaint, it would be helpful if you could also tell me:

i.  How many copies of your "Parliamentary Report" were distributed, to whom and how.

ii.  Whether surveys like the Katesgrove Ward example enclosed were distributed with every copy or only with certain copies of the Report.

iii.  Whether you sought advice from the House's Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) before publishing your Report.

I should add that the Member for Reading West, Mr Martin Salter, has made similar criticisms of your Parliamentary Report in responding to the complaint you made against him recently, although he has said that he does not wish to pursue a formal complaint. He has also said that you did not inform him of your complaint about him, but that he only became aware of it following a press release you issued on 28 March, the same day on which you wrote to me about it.

Paragraph 85 of the "Guide to the Rules relating to the Conduct of Members (HC 351, Session 2005-06) says:

"It is a basic courtesy that a Member making a complaint to the Commissioner should at the same time send a copy of the letter of complaint to the Member concerned."

The Committee on Standards and Privileges has emphasised the importance it attaches to the observance of this courtesy in a recent report (Third Report of Session 2006-07, HC 431, paragraph 15).

I should be grateful if you will let me have your comments on this point also when replying to this letter.

I am enclosing with this letter a copy of a note, which I send to all Members who are the subject of a complaint, setting out the procedures I follow when handling a complaint. I am also copying this letter and enclosures to Mr …, the Director of Operations in the DFA, whose advice I shall seek following your response to the complaint.

If, at anytime, you want a word about this matter, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

16 April 2007