Report: Fox In Clear Breach Of Ministerial Code

Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox "clearly" breached the ministerial code over his relationship with Adam Werritty - but did not gain from it financially, a report by the Cabinet Secretary has found.

Sir Gus O'Donnell said Dr Fox had allowed an "inappropriate blurring of lines between official and personal relationships".

His report also names six private donors to Mr Werritty's company Pargav and states his links to Dr Fox meant the donations "could at least be seen as giving rise to the perception of a conflict of interest".

He strongly criticised Dr Fox for allowing Mr Werritty access to details of his diary covering overseas visits and said it had "posed a degree of security risk" to both Dr Fox and officials accompanying him.

He said that both his private office at the MoD and his permanent secretary had raised with Dr Fox the risks of his association with Mr Werritty.

"Dr Fox took action in respect of business cards but clearly made a judgment that his contact with Mr Werritty should continue," he said.

"This may have been a reasonable judgment had the contacts been minimal and purely personal and had not involved Mr Werritty's frequent attendance at meetings in the MoD main building and on overseas visits.

"The damage arose because the frequency, range and extent of these contacts were not regulated as well as they should have been and this was exacerbated by the fact that Dr Fox did not make his department aware of all the various contacts."

Sir Gus included a series of recommendations to strengthen systems and make it clear which advisers hold official positions, which Downing Street said the Prime Minister had accepted.

Responding to the report, Dr Fox said he was "pleased" to have been cleared of gaining financially and of breaching national security.

He added: "As I said in the House of Commons last week, I accept that it was a mistake to allow the distinctions between government and private roles to become blurred, and I must take my share of the responsibility for this.

"More care should have been taken to avoid the impression that anyone other than minsters and officials were speaking on behalf of the Government, as this was not the case.

"Although there were no actual conflicts of interest, I acknowledge that in order to avoid any possible perception of this, all private interests should have been fully declared to the Permanent Secretary.

"I welcome the recommendations in this report which will provide greater clarity for ministers, officials and private individuals in the future."

However, Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy told Sky News the report had not gone far enough.

"This is a 10-page report which is relatively superficial and it is relatively limited," he said.

"It is no way to deal with such a series of criticism so I fear this is not the end of this matter and what we really need now is a much wider independent report."

Mr Cameron is to answer questions about Dr Fox at Prime Minister's questions on Wednesday.