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Personal Statement

My Lords, I wish to make a personal statement. As your Lordships may be aware, there has been some recent press comment relating to a letter, now made public, which I wrote in 2007 on a private matter of a business nature. I accept that although the business interest to which the letter referred was correctly entered in your Lordships’ Register of Interests in 2003, it was removed in 2005, which was clearly premature. I also accept that the use of House of Lords writing paper was inappropriate. I apologise to your Lordships for these errors for which I take full personal responsibility.