Committee publication · Report · 11 December 2025
Charlie Maynard - Oral evidence
From: Committee on Standards
Government response deadline: 11 February 2026
Summary
Oral evidence session with MP Charlie Maynard before the Committee on Standards on 18 November 2025. Maynard addressed four areas of alleged interest registration failures: pro bono legal advice for Thames Water High Court intervention, undisclosed use of sister-in-law's flat, unreported shares in a Vietnamese company worth over £120,000, and late registration of his resignation from district council. He argued each failure was inadvertent, not deliberate, and requested the Committee apply the rectification procedure under Standing Order 150(4)(a) rather than finding him in breach of Rule 5 of the Code of Conduct.
Key findings
- Maynard sought advice on the Thames Water pro bono case from the Standards Commissioner, Chief Whip, and Public Bill Office in January 2025, but none recommended registering the interest; he only discovered the registration requirement after a Guido Fawkes inquiry on 13 March and self-reported within 16 hours.
- He discussed staying in his sister-in-law's flat with IPSA shortly after election but understood this covered compliance fully; he self-reported the omission once he realised separate registration was required.
- Vietnamese company shares worth over £120,000 were sold in February 2025 without prior registration; Maynard attributed this to focus on his primary business interest (BDA Partners) and acknowledged it as a careless mistake but stated no financial gain accrued from non-disclosure to HMRC.
- His resignation as West Oxfordshire district councillor (13 March) was registered 29 days late; he caught and corrected this during an internal audit, explaining he had publicised the resignation but not formally notified the Registrar.
- Maynard emphasised that in each instance he self-reported errors as soon as discovered; he attributed failures to lack of one-on-one training with the Registrar of Interests (only IPSA training received) and confusion about which body held responsibility for different compliance areas.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Charlie Maynard MP, Alberto Costa (Chair, Committee on Standards), Standards Commissioner, Registrar of Interests, IPSA, Thames Water, Guido Fawkes
Notable line
“… as soon as I recognised my mistake I came forward to correct it. I therefore ask that you use your right to exercise Standing Order No.”
Key Quotes
“I fully accept that I inadvertently failed to register these interests on time, and this was a result of my own errors. For that, I am entirely and unequivocally sorry.”
“How does one request advice on registering an interest if one is unaware of the need to do so in the first place?”
“… is a bit "Catch - 22"—damned if you do, damned if you don't. If I do come forward with a correction, by definition I must have previously misrepresented that my register was up to date and accurate …”
“Every time I discovered an issue, I self-reported it, moving quickly and honestly as soon as I realised my mistake.”
“I am not arguing otherwise; I am just saying that that was where it came from. On the Vietnamese one, I still kind of think, why on earth did I not get that straight?”
“I went out and sought advice because I was unsure of what I was doing. I had never taken part in a High Court action or anything close to that before, so I was like "Okay …”
“What I fail to understand is the Vietnamese shares — £120,000 is not an insignificant sum. At a very base level, you as an MP should know about the registration of something like that …”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗