{"id":199987,"date":"2025-10-14T18:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T18:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199987\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T18:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T18:25:07","slug":"former-lord-speaker-faces-suspension-for-improper-influence-over-speeding-offence-house-of-lords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199987\/","title":{"rendered":"Former lord speaker faces suspension for \u2018improper influence\u2019 over speeding offence | House of Lords"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former lord speaker Frances D\u2019Souza is facing suspension from the Lords after writing to the Metropolitan police<\/a> commissioner to try to \u201cinfluence a police investigation into alleged speeding offences\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lady D\u2019Souza wrote to Mark Rowley saying she feared she would have to give up attending parliament if she were banned from driving for exceeding the limit in a 20mph zone.<\/p>\n

The Met police said it had considered launching a criminal investigation into the apparent attempt to influence the commissioner but decided against it. It then passed the letter to the House of Lords<\/a> conduct committee to investigate whether it breached the code of conduct.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza did not dispute the case but appealed against the sanction \u2013 a recommended eight-week ban from the Lords for seeking \u201cto influence a live police investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter from D\u2019Souza \u2013 on headed House of Lords notepaper \u2013 acknowledged it was a \u201ctrivial matter\u201d for the Met but said she lived \u201cdeep in the countryside with no local bus services and unsuitable train schedules\u201d.<\/p>\n

She asked if a ban was a \u201cfair response for exceeding the speed limit while we are all still learning what a 20 mile speed actually feels like?\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza also questioned \u201cif my speedometer or your radar is entirely accurate in recording 21 miles instead of 20?\u201d<\/p>\n

The report from the conduct committee said D\u2019Souza acknowledged that her letter was \u201cinappropriate\u201d, adding that \u201cwith the benefit of hindsight, I deeply regret it\u201d but described the recommended sanction as \u201cunduly severe\u201d.<\/p>\n

She told the committee that she had been advised by a fellow peer, a former Met commissioner, to write to the relevant chief of the police force and that she had previously met Rowley through the Westminster Abbey institute.<\/p>\n

The committee found D\u2019Souza \u201ctook advantage of her privileged position as a member of the house to exert improper influence upon an investigation. No one who is not a parliamentarian would have possessed such an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza was subsequently charged and summoned to appear before a magistrates court for the speeding offences.<\/p>\n

She has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former lord speaker Frances D\u2019Souza is facing suspension from the Lords after writing to the Metropolitan police commissioner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-199987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}