The Paymaster General, Geoffrey Robinson, has been cleared of breaching the House of Commons rules over his links with an offshore trust.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Sir Gordon Downey ruled: "There is no case for saying that Mr Robinson has breached a rule of the House on registration."

The Committee on Standards and Privileges agreed with that ruling.

But the commissioner and the committee said that, because of doubts over whether there was a problem, Mr Robinson should have consulted Sir Gordon.

Sir Gordon Downey: "Members ought to seek the advice of the Commissioner."

Sir Gordon concluded in his report: "It was, in my view, a mistake for Mr Robinson to rely on advice on registration matters from his professional advisers."

The committee echoed Sir Gordon's conclusion, stating: "Although not a requirement, there are occasions when interests of this nature would be better registered and if a doubt should arise Members ought to seek the advice of the Commissioner.

"We and our predecessors have made this point on several previous occasions. If a member feels it necessary to seek professional advice on a matter of registration it is clear that some doubt must exist."

Mr Robinson said in a statement: "I was confident that Sir Gordon Downey would conclude, as he did, `that there is no case for saying that Mr Robinson has breached a rule of the House on registration'."

Liberal Democrat member of the Standards and Privileges Committee, Charles Kennedy, said: "It is clear that the Paymaster General could and should have exercised better judgement where his offshore trust arrangements were concerned.

"The real reason for him, and the rest of us, is always to seek advice and guidance either from the Parliamentary Commissioner on Standards or the Registrar of Members' Interests."

Sir Gordon was asked by Shadow Chancellor Peter Lilley to investigate Mr Robinson's financial affairs after it emerged that he was a discretionary beneficiary - along with members of his family -of an offshore trust set up by a late friend.

Mr Lilley complained about Mr Robinson's failure to register the Guernsey-based Orion Trust in the Register of Members' Interests.

In his three-page report, Sir Gordon said that the circumstances surrounding the Orion Trust had not arisen before.

He says that Mr Robinson argued that there was no case for registering his interest in the trust since he has "no right to receive a pecuniary interest or other material benefit; that distributions will certainly not be made to him during his tenure of office; and that, without knowledge of the underlying shareholdings, he could not reasonably be thought by others to be open to influence in his capacity as a Member."

Lilley - Robinson should resign

Mr Lilley responded to the report in a statement: "Sir Gordon's findings are clear. Mr Robinson should have registered his Orion Trust - as I claimed."

"This indicates that Sir Gordon thinks the Paymaster has a clear interest in the trust."

"There can be little doubt that, if this ruling had been available to the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, his advice on ministerial conflicts of interest would have been different."

"Sir Gordon's ruling further confirms that the Paymaster General's position is untenable."

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