This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23537513
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Soca chairman resigns over undeclared directorship | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The chairman of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has quit after failing to declare a possible conflict of interest. | |
| Home Secretary Theresa May accepted Sir Ian Andrews's resignation on Thursday. | |
| Sir Ian had failed to declare his directorship in a management consultancy company, Abis Partnership. | |
| The Home Office and Soca have denied that his departure is related to the ongoing controversy over the agency's probe into private investigators. | |
| The agency requires its board members to register their interests - but Sir Ian had not declared his directorship in the company. | |
| In a letter to Keith Vaz MP, chairman of the home affairs committee, Sir Ian said that while he had declared clients to whom he provides "management consultancy services", he had failed to declare the company. | |
| "I have no explanation for this other than it was both a genuine and unintentional oversight but it is nonetheless inexcusable: and the responsibility is mine alone," he said. | |
| "My original four-year appointment expires at the end of this week and was due to be extended until October to cover the remaining life of Soca. | |
| "Given the above, and the fact that I have failed to maintain the standard of integrity to be expected of the head of a public body, let alone one charged with law enforcement, I believe that I had no alternative but to offer the home secretary my resignation. | |
| "This is a huge disappointment to me personally because I have been assiduous about avoiding conflicts of interest throughout a public service career spanning almost 40 years. | |
| "I should make clear, once again, that this is completely unconnected with the evidence I gave to the select committee, by which I stand, or issues associated with private investigators." | |
| The agency has faced claims that it suppressed a report into the illegal activities of private investigators. | |
| Sir Ian and the agency's director-general, Trevor Pearce, denied to the Home Affairs Committee that the organisation had withheld information about law-breaking investigators. | |
| Earlier this week, the committee released a document from Soca detailing that law firms, insurance companies and celebrities were among the clients of private eyes linked to illegality. |