MPs with criminal records

The request was successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Can you please let me know if any current Members of Parliament have a criminal conviction. If so, how many MPs have a criminal conviction and what crimes are the convictions for?

Yours faithfully,

A. Hunter

FOICOMMONS, House of Commons

Dear A Hunter,

Thank you for your email dated 28 January 2009 and received today (29th
January).

Your request will be dealt with promptly and you should receive a
response by 26 February 2009.

If you have any queries about your request, please contact me.

Mandy Kelly
Freedom of Information Assistant

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CASTLE, Bob, House of Commons

Dear Mr Hunter,

Thank you for your email dated 28 January which is copied below.

There is a requirement to inform the House, if Members are arrested on
criminal charges, of the cause for which they are detained from their
service in Parliament. The House is also informed when a Member has been
committed to prison for a criminal offence. In such circumstances, the
Speaker would normally make an oral statement or lay a copy of the
letter on the Table. The Representation of the People Act 1981
disqualifies from membership of the House any serving Member detained
for any offence in the UK or the Republic of Ireland for more than a
year or detained indefinitely, and their seat becomes vacant.

The House of Commons Library has compiled a list of MPs imprisoned since
1979 and this is attached. The Library also has a collection of press
cuttings, which report details of individual cases falling under the
general heading of "Members conduct". The information contained in
these cuttings is accessible to you by means other than by a request to
the House, so is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the FOI Act.

No other information relevant to your request is held.

You may, if dissatisfied with the treatment of your request, ask the
House of Commons to conduct an internal review of this decision.
Requests for internal review should be addressed to: Freedom of
Information Officer, Department of Resources, House of Commons London
SW1 OAA or [House of Commons request email]. Please ensure that you specify the
nature of your complaint and any arguments or points that you wish to
make.

If you remain dissatisfied, you may appeal to the Information
Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Bob Castle
Head of Information Rights and Information Security

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Dear Mr CASTLE,

Thank you for your reply, which stated "The House of Commons Library has compiled a list of MPs imprisoned since 1979 and this is attached."

You have omitted to attach the list of names. I should be most grateful if you would provide this by return.

Also, it is not clear if your reply refers only to sitting MPs who have been imprisoned during their period in office or, as I expected, people who may have served a term of imprisonment prior to their subsequent election as a Member of Parliament.

Can you please clarify if the list which you intend to attach details the latter, if not, can you please provide this information?

Your reply stated: "The Library also has a collection of press cuttings, which report details of individual cases falling under the general heading of "Members conduct". The information contained in these cuttings is accessible to you by means other than by a request to the House, so is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the FOI Act."

Can you please tell me where I may find this information, or if a summary is available to you in a readily communicable format, can you please provide it?

Yours sincerely,

A. Hunter

CASTLE, Bob, House of Commons

Dear Mr Hunter
Sorry about the attachment - the list of Members imprisoned while
serving as an MP can be found on our website:
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/res...
For the press cuttings an internet search on Google for "MP arrested" or
similar search terms may provide information for your research, as might
a search on the web archives of the national and other large newspapers
e.g.., the Times or Herald. Some reference libraries also maintain
searchable archives of newspapers. Other sources may include
Factiva.com.
Yours sincerely
Bob Castle

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Simon Kay left an annotation ()

New Government rules requiring people to have a CRB check before they visit a school appear to apply to MPs as well. I believe that several MPs have indeed visited schools since this legislation has come into effect. Therefore the House of Commons should have this information available for at least these MPs (including of course those MPs that did not visit a school due to failure of their CRB). I therefore ask the House of Commons to release the results of all CRB that have been performed on MPs.

Peter Danby left an annotation ()

MPs do not have CRB disclosures as they call themselves honourable, which aint true at all...!

UK police do not have CRB disclosures either, they have an internal process and can employ anybody at their discretion, which aint right".

Mr C Pollard left an annotation ()

The question you asked is one very easily worked around. It lists only MPs who were arrested whilst sitting. It does not mention the likes of jeffrey Archer as the majority resign or are sacked before being imprisoned!

Peter Danby left an annotation ()

MPs don't have CRB disclosures' they call themselves honorable people.... From my understanding from the link attached you cannot be a MP if you have criminal record !

http://www.women2win.com/being-mp

lynda left an annotation ()

Peter Danby's comment is only partially correct. The bullet point to which he refers relates to criminality in an electoral sense. i.e. you can be a serial killer but not a vote rigger.

Simon Kay left an annotation ()

The house of commons library posted their current restrictions (12th August 2015) of disclosing criminal records here http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/R.... It is not quite clear whether this is in full compliance with the freedom of information act which does not so readily make exclusions of what types of information must be made publically available.

Peter Danby left an annotation ()

When a country has been blitzed, how do you expect migrant workers to have Disclosure and Barring Service checks ?

Peter Danby left an annotation ()

How can the UK police be Judge and Jury with regards a spent conviction showing up on a DBS disclosure? when the UK police are employing police constables with criminal records.

The UK is a sovereign country and as such the UK police should not be able to be Judge and Jury. This is a conflict of interests......