Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what penalties apply to ministers who are found to have breached paragraph 1.7 of the Ministerial Code.

Ministers are personally responsible for deciding how to act and conduct themselves in the light of the Code and for justifying their actions and conduct to Parliament and the public.

The Prime Minister is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a Minister and the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards.

As the Prime Minister noted in his letter to the Committee on Standards in Public Life on 28 April 2021, he agreed with the Committee's suggestion that the appropriate sanction should depend on the circumstances of the case, and that the expectation that has arisen over time - that any breach should lead automatically to resignation - is disproportionate.