Summary
This Report, ‘Conduct
of Mr Elfyn Llwyd, Mr Adam Price and Mr Hywel Willliams’ (HC 94), examines
complaints into the conduct of three Plaid Cymru Members or Parliament,
following allegations of misuse of parliamentary allowances.
Parliamentary communications allowances allow MPs to update constituents on
their parliamentary activities but are not intended for electoral campaigning.
The complaint against the three Members, relating to double-page adverts
placed in local newspapers prior to the Welsh Assembly elections in May 2007,
had four components:
- Whether the advertisements contained
inappropriate material
- Whether the use of party logos breached the
Communication Allowance rules
- Whether the extent and method of
circulation was appropriate as a method of reporting back to a constituency the
activities of its Member of Parliament
- Whether the week before the
Welsh Assembly elections was appropriate timing for such a communication.
The Committee finds that the advertisements were a form of
campaigning and should not have been paid for by the Communication Allowance
and that this money should be repaid.
In addition the Committee welcomes
the fact that the Parliamentary Commissioner will in future consider what
should be funded from Parliamentary allowances during the period of an
election.
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