Thank you for sending me the final copy of the Commissioner's Report on the complaint made against me by Rob Wilson MP. As I stated in my letter of 10 April and 15 June, this is not the first time that my political opponents have sought to use complaints to the Commissioner for Standards and Privileges or the Serjeant-at-Arms together with accompanying press releases to try and damage me politically. The fact that all previous complaints have been rejected certainly led me to assume that I had a full working knowledge of the rules governing the use of the parliamentary postage paid envelopes when in fact I had obviously missed the revision of the rules by the DFA in 2005.

As the Commissioner states I had good reason to assume that I was operating within the rules of the House. I'm aware that the lack of clarity regarding rules issued separately by the Serjeant-at-Arms and the DFA has caused problems for the other Members in the past who have found themselves to be the subject of similar complaints. However, I accept that I have a responsibility to keep up to date with changes to the rules and have already indicated a willingness to repay the postage and envelope costs. Since these postage costs are eligible for funding via the IEP and now the new Communications Allowance I would propose that I make the necessary payment out of my allowances for the current financial year.

I have no further comment to make on the technical issue of the imprint other than to state that may staff and printers have been instructed to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

Finally, I am delighted that the Commissioner has confirmed that my Parliamentary Report could not be seen in a party political context. I am always careful to distribute these reports well away from local or national elections and I ensure that they do not contain party logos or party political content.

I apologise to the Committee for inadvertently breaching the postage rules. Please note that I will be abroad next week on Home Affairs Select Committee Business should you have any further questions for me.

11 October 2007