Commons standards chief broke rules – but keeps job

THE chairman of Parliament’s standards watchdog is to keep his job despite his own committee finding him guilty of breaching the MPs’ code of conduct.

Sir Kevin Barron, head of the Commons Standards Committee, broke the rules by accepting payment for hosting events for a drug company in Parliament.

But his committee recommended no further action following the ‘minor’ breach.

Sir Kevin had stepped aside as chairman while the probe was taking place. Last night he said he would be resuming the role.

But a former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life said it was ‘not satisfactory’ that Sir Kevin had been investigated by his colleagues.

Sir Alistair Graham said: ‘I’d like to see reforms so there is a majority on the committee of lay members rather than MPs’.

‘Least serious end of the spectrum’

Sir Kevin referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner after his links to the Japanese Pharmaceutical Group were reported.

The Labour MP entered into an agreement with JPG in 2011 and sponsored three events in Parliament. Money from JPG was donated to the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, and the committee’s report found that three £3,000 cheques to the charity were registered in Sir Kevin’s entry in the Commons register of members’ interests.

Commissioner Kathryn Hudson found that Sir Kevin breached rules which state private dining rooms ‘are not to be used for the direct or indirect financial or material gain by a sponsor’.

But she said: ‘I consider this breach to be at the least serious end of the spectrum.’

Last night Sir Kevin acknowledged his ‘mistake’, adding: ‘I am delighted to return to this role’.