The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has today concluded that Rachel Maclean broke rule 8 of the Code of Conduct for Members. The Housing Minister’s “minor” rule breach arose when she used her parliamentary email address to send 2,429 party political emails to constituents on the day of the local elections. Rachel Maclean accepted the Standards Commissioner’s decision, and outlined how she would prevent a further such breach:
“By sending an email to my constituents on my mailing list using my parliamentary email address on 4 May 2023, I acted in breach of rule 8 of the Code of Conduct. I have taken several steps to prevent the recurrence of the breach, including:
- Ensuring all of my team members undertake additional training so they are more familiar with how the mailing list system works.
- Updating the email address my newsletter is sent from, so it no longer comes from my Parliamentary email.
- I have put in place additional audit procedures within my office team to ensure that mistakes of this nature do not occur again.”
Case closed.
Co-conspirators can read the full report, including the offending email, below:
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has opened an investigation into Housing Minister, Rachel Maclean, just as David Mundell was found to have breached the rules. Maclean is being investigated for her “Use of facilities [parliamentary email address] provided from the public purse”. Meanwhile, Mundell made the mistake of sending out a newsletter covering a range of issues – which is prohibited by stationery rules. The claim is not being taken further after he apologised and reimbursed the £1,359 cost. A slap on the wrist.
