I have today written to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to accept the outcome of her investigation and apologise for an inadvertent breach of the Code of Conduct.

 In order to raise funds for my local party in the recent General Election Campaign, I made an offer on a Crowdfunding site of a personal tour of those areas of Parliament which are special to me.  When I did so, I did not believe I was breaking parliamentary rules, which I had interpreted to mean that what was prohibited was offering something that was otherwise “freely available.”  I did not believe such a personal tour was “freely available”.

However, the Commissioner has ruled that this was a breach of the Code of Conduct and I accept her decision.

I would like to apologise for this completely unintentional breach of the rules.  The Green Party has returned the money to the supporter who made the donation.