• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Hancock in ‘minor breach’ of ministerial code over shares in sister’s NHS-linked firm

The failure was “a result of his lack of knowledge and in no way deliberate”, a report found.

Henry Goodwin by Henry Goodwin
2021-05-28 16:21
in Politics
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Matt Hancock committed a “minor breach of the ministerial code” by failing to declare shares in his sister’s firm, which was approved as an NHS supplier, a watchdog said.

But the failure was “a result of his lack of knowledge and in no way deliberate”, a report found.

While acknowledging that the health secretary had “in technical terms” broken the code, Lord Geidt – Boris Johnson’s new adviser on ministerial standards – concluded: “In coming to this finding, I recognise that Mr Hancock has acted with integrity.”

In March, Hancock declared he had acquired 20 per cent of a firm called Topwood Ltd, which provides secure storage and shreds documents.

But the entry in the Commons register did not disclose that his sister, Emily Gilruth, is a director and owns a larger portion of the company’s shares – or that it had links to the NHS.

Topwood also won £300,000 from NHS Wales – which Hancock has no responsibility for – spurring Labour to attack “cronyism at the heart of government”.

Lord Geidt ruled that “there could be a reasonably perceived conflict of interest” from the shareholding – but that the health secretary complied with the ministerial code by declaring it.

He noted that Hancock had been health secretary since July 2018, with the firm first approved for NHS work in February 2019.

But the report concludes that his sister “failed to raise this award with Mr Hancock” – or nothing was brought to his attention “such that he would have had reason to enquire”.

RelatedPosts

Protesters break into House of Lords debate on protesting

Only one constituency out of 632 strongly agrees Britain was right to leave EU

Boris Johnson told ‘a lie’ over Putin missile attack claims, says Kremlin

Penny Mordaunt favourite to become Tory Chairman

Elsewhere on Friday, Lord Geidt ruled that Boris Johnson “unwisely” allowed the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat to go ahead without “more rigorous regard for how this would be funded”

In his first report on ministers’ interests, released on Friday after months of delay, the new adviser on ministerial standards  said there was a “significant failing” from officials in how “rigorous” they were at examining the idea of setting up a trust to fund renovations to Downing Street.

And he said Johnson had not been aware that in lieu of any such trust being set up, the bill for the refurbishment had been paid by Tory peer and party donor Lord Brownlow.

Lord Geidt said “the prime minister – unwisely, in my view – allowed the refurbishment of the apartment at No 11 Downing Street to proceed without more rigorous regard for how this would be funded”.

Related: Johnson ‘unwise’ but cleared of breaching code over flat refurb, report finds

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

‘She’ll be gone in days’: Reaction as Liz Truss addresses the nation

Police uncovered a black bin bag containing two heads – from deflated sex dolls

David Lammy asks why ‘Black English’ not an option on the census

Qatar fund to become Gulf Investment Fund

‘Super patronising’ Therese Coffey slammed over Health Department email

WATCH – 94-year-old pianist with dementia plays wife’s favourite song on 75th wedding anniversary

Is the Current Oil Slump Exposing Concrete Evidence of the Realisation of Dubai’s Ambitious Vision?

“Change will come,soon it will come” activists pledge abortion laws will change in Argentina

Herald Investment Trust – From small acorns ….

Hotel Review: Mama London

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.