The MPs watchdog has determined that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak failed to properly declare his wife's financial interest in a child-minding agency.
Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, stated that this was "inadvertent" and the result of "confusion" regarding the regulations.
In a letter to Mr. Greenberg, Mr. Sunak acknowledged the verdict and expressed regret. The investigation has concluded, and the Prime Minister will face no further action.
Mr. Greenberg received a complaint following Mr. Sunak's March appearance before the Commons Liaison Committee.
During the session, the prime minister was questioned about his policy of offering financial incentives to individuals who became childminders.
The funds would be used to cover the fees of the six private childcare providers specified on the website of the UK government.
Mr. Sunak's wife, Akshata Murty, was a shareholder in one of these private companies, Koru Kids, but when asked if he had any disclosures to make, he responded, "No, all of my disclosures have been made in the usual manner."
Mr. Greenberg stated that he had concluded, following an investigation, that Ms. Murty's shareholding was a pertinent interest that should have been disclosed to MPs.
The commissioner stated that, even if Mr. Sunak was unaware of the shareholding at the time of his appearance before the committee, he was cognizant of it when he subsequently wrote a letter to the Committee chairman Sir Bernard Jenkin to clarify matters and should have disclosed it at that time.
Mr. Sunak had disclosed his shareholding in accordance with regulations requiring ministers to declare their interests.
This record is not made public but is held by government employees. Some of these interests are disclosed on the ministers' list of interests.
The independent adviser on ministerial interests provides guidance on which ministerial interests should be included on this publicly accessible list.
Mr. Sunak stated that three independent advisors informed him that his wife's shareholdings were not required to be included.
Mr. Greenberg acknowledged that Mr. Sunak believed that he had complied with his obligations by registering his interest, and therefore did not disclose it in his letter to Sir Bernard Jenkin.
He added that Mr. Sunak had conflated the concepts of registration and declaration and that, as a result, Mr. Sunak's failure to declare was accidental.
Mr. Greenberg stated that he was concluding his investigation using the "rectification procedure" - a method for correcting minor failures to declare interests.
It indicates that the commissioner refrains from submitting a full report to the Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges for consideration of potential additional action.
In response to Mr. Greenberg, Mr. Sunak stated that he had no idea of the connection between Koru Kids and his government's childcare policy during the Liaison Committee hearing.
“As described in my subsequent letter to Sir Bernard, the Liaison Committee chair, I was unaware of the connection until after the hearing.” “My letter to Sir Bernard about declaration (as opposed to registration) was inadequately detailed... In retrospect, I concur with your assessment that I should have stated my interest in the correspondence more explicitly... Please accept my apologies for these inadvertent errors and confirmation that your correction proposal has been accepted.”
