Lords Commissioner for Standards dismisses complaint against Lord Singh
The independent House of Lords Commissioner for Standards has today published a report dismissing a complaint of harassment and bullying against Lord Singh of Wimbledon from Preet Kaur Gill MP.
The Commissioner found that the evidence did not support the allegation that Lord Singh’s conduct towards Ms Kaur Gill was related to her sex, or any other protected characteristic, and therefore did not meet the criteria to be considered harassment. The Commissioner said:
“While there was discourteous conduct demonstrated towards Ms Kaur Gill, the evidence did not demonstrate on the balance of probabilities that this could reasonably be ascribed to Ms Kaur Gill’s sex.”
The Commissioner also found that a finding of bullying could not be demonstrated on the balance of probabilities. The Commissioner concluded that:
“Essential to a finding of bullying is evidence of a misuse or abuse of power, typically arising out of an imbalance of power between the two parties. In this instance, both Lord Singh and Ms Kaur Gill had a similar level of power: both were parliamentarians (which I consider to the most important factor in this parliamentary context) and both were supported by external organisations (Ms Kaur Gill, the Sikh Federation (UK); Lord Singh, the Network of Sikh Organisations). As a result, I have dismissed Ms Kaur Gill’s complaint.”
The full report is available on the Commissioner’s website
