Downing Street response to Fox report in full
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 5:33 PM
Read Downing Street's response to the Liam Fox report in full.
"Last Monday, the Prime Minister asked the Cabinet Secretary to produce a report looking into allegations concerning Liam Fox's relationship with Mr Adam Werritty. The purpose of this report was to establish the facts before drawing conclusions.
"Since then, Liam Fox has resigned as Defence Secretary accepting that he mistakenly allowed the distinction between personal interest and government activities to become blurred. The Prime Minister accepted Dr Fox's resignation and his reasons for resigning. He made clear that he was sorry to see the departure of a Defence Secretary who had implemented fundamental changes that will help to ensure our Armed Forces are fully equipped to meet the challenges of the modern era. Today's report makes clear that Dr Fox did breach the Ministerial Code.
"This government has already introduced changes that significantly increase government transparency - publishing lists of meetings with external organisations and all procurement over £500. In this case, the MOD Permanent Secretary has accepted that there should have been much tighter procedures within the department and is taking steps to strengthen them to ensure that the Ministerial Code is properly adhered to in future. The Cabinet Secretary has now recommended further strengthening of procedures across Government. The Prime Minister accepts the Cabinet Secretary's recommendations and the Cabinet Secretary will write to Permanent Secretaries setting this out."
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