The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has criticised Housing Minister Rachel Maclean for breaking MPs’ rules.

Maclean broke rule 8 of the Code of Conduct for Members when she used her parliamentary email address to send 2,429 party political emails to constituents on the day of the local elections in early May.

A statement to the commissioner from Maclean says she accepts the verdict and has taken measures to avoid a repeat.

She says: “By sending an email to my constituents on my mailing list using my parliamentary email address on 4 May 2023, I acted in breach of rule 8 of the Code of Conduct. 

“I have taken several steps to prevent the recurrence of the breach, including:

– Ensuring all of my team members undertake additional training so they are more familiar with how the mailing list system works;

– Updating the email address my newsletter is sent from, so it no longer comes from my Parliamentary email;

– I have put in place additional audit procedures within my office team to ensure that mistakes of this nature do not occur again.”