A Conservative peer has apologised for breaking House of Lords rules by helping to secure a meeting with a minister for a Canadian company he advises. Ian Duncan, a deputy speaker of the Lords, was found to have breached the rules by providing a parliamentary service for Terrestrial Energy when he facilitated an introduction between its chief executive and a new energy minister.
His conduct had been reported to the Lords standards commissioner after the Guardian’s months-long investigation examining the commercial interests of peers. As a result of the Lords debate series, four other peers are being investigated to establish whether they breached the house’s code of conduct.
In a report published on Friday, the standards commissioner ruled that Lord Duncan of Springbank had broken the rules that forbid peers from seeking to profit from their membership of the upper chamber. The former junior climate minister has been an adviser to Terrestrial Energy since 2020, receiving share options as consideration for his work.
The Guardian revealed that, in 2023, Duncan forwarded a letter to Andrew Bowie, the nuclear minister at the time, from Simon Irish, the firm’s chief executive who wanted a meeting. The peer signed off his email “Lord D of S”. The chief executive secured the meeting with Bowie, at which he lobbied for easier access to government funding.
In his response, Duncan argued the meeting was due to a personal relationship, not his membership of the Lords. However, Margaret Obi, the commissioner, ruled that the prohibition on providing parliamentary services in return for payment or incentive was absolute, and that the share options constituted an incentive or reward for his work.
