A
Ardross
Guest
FROM THE BBC
A head teacher who helped find sponsors for the government's flagship city academies programme has been arrested as part of a cash for honours probe.
Des Smith sparked a row earlier this year when he suggested donors would be given honours in exchange for funding.
He quit his post with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, which helps find sponsors, after the story.
Mr Smith was arrested in East London earlier on Thursday under the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act.
He is currently in custody at a London police station.
The elections watchdog the Electoral Commission meanwhile has published a new draft code of conduct on reporting loans in the wake of discussions with the main political parties.
It says the parties agree to report any loan more than £5,000 - or more than £1,000 if the donor has given another amount that needed to be reported in that year.
'Desperately sorry'
The draft code says "this would apply whether or not the party regards the loan as having been made on commercial terms".
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust helps the government recruit education sponsors.
Mr Smith quit his post with the body in January after admitting he had been naive when talking to a reporter posing as a potential donor's PR assistant.
He reportedly told the Sunday Times that "the prime minister's office would recommend someone like [the donor] for an OBE, a CBE or a knighthood".
After his resignation he told the Guardian he had "been shattered by the experience. I was naive, I shouldn't have said what I did. I'm desperately sorry".
Downing Street said at the time it was "nonsense to suggest that honours are awarded for giving money to an academy".
Mr Smith remains headmaster of the All Saints Catholic School and Technology College, Barking and Dagenham.
Investigation widened
The cash-for-honours inquiry was originally launched in response to a complaint by Scottish and Welsh nationalist MPs that Labour had broken the law preventing the sale of honours such as peerages and knighthoods.
It has since been widened to cover the activities of other parties.
The investigation is being led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who has said he is prepared to widen the investigation to consider more general allegations of corruption.
It followed reports that the House of Lords Appointments Commission had blocked the appointment of four of Prime Minister Tony Blair's nominations for peerages - all wealthy businessmen who had made loans to Labour.
None were on the list of new working life peers when it was published on Monday. One Tory nominee - who had loaned the party £2m - also missed out on a seat in the upper house.
Mr Yates has already told MPs that he is prepared to widen the investigation to consider more general allegations of corruption.
Unlimited fine
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust describes itself as the "leading national body for secondary education in England, part funded by the DfES (Education Department), delivering the government's Specialist Schools and Academies programme.
"The government's aim is that by 2008 all schools will be specialist, except those planned to be Academies," it adds.
Anyone found guilty under the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act - designed to deal with those who both give and accept honours under inducement - could face imprisonment for up to two years or fined an unlimited amount. The Act was introduced after the scandal of the early 1920s when David Lloyd George was offering peerages and lesser honours at a price.
The really chilling thing about this is that Mr Smith has been arrested . Until the passing of the Serious Organised Crime Act you could only be arrested if there was reasonable suspicion that you had committed a serious offence i.e one acttracting a term of imprisonment of more than five years . David Blunkett however abolished this and you can now be arrested for any offence no matter how minor rather than be invited to be interviewed under caution and charged or summonsed to court . This is how police powers operate in dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. I can't see any reason why Mr Smith was arrested other than grandstanding . These powers for the police are open to wide abuse .
A head teacher who helped find sponsors for the government's flagship city academies programme has been arrested as part of a cash for honours probe.
Des Smith sparked a row earlier this year when he suggested donors would be given honours in exchange for funding.
He quit his post with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, which helps find sponsors, after the story.
Mr Smith was arrested in East London earlier on Thursday under the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act.
He is currently in custody at a London police station.
The elections watchdog the Electoral Commission meanwhile has published a new draft code of conduct on reporting loans in the wake of discussions with the main political parties.
It says the parties agree to report any loan more than £5,000 - or more than £1,000 if the donor has given another amount that needed to be reported in that year.
'Desperately sorry'
The draft code says "this would apply whether or not the party regards the loan as having been made on commercial terms".
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust helps the government recruit education sponsors.
Mr Smith quit his post with the body in January after admitting he had been naive when talking to a reporter posing as a potential donor's PR assistant.
He reportedly told the Sunday Times that "the prime minister's office would recommend someone like [the donor] for an OBE, a CBE or a knighthood".
After his resignation he told the Guardian he had "been shattered by the experience. I was naive, I shouldn't have said what I did. I'm desperately sorry".
Downing Street said at the time it was "nonsense to suggest that honours are awarded for giving money to an academy".
Mr Smith remains headmaster of the All Saints Catholic School and Technology College, Barking and Dagenham.
Investigation widened
The cash-for-honours inquiry was originally launched in response to a complaint by Scottish and Welsh nationalist MPs that Labour had broken the law preventing the sale of honours such as peerages and knighthoods.
It has since been widened to cover the activities of other parties.
The investigation is being led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who has said he is prepared to widen the investigation to consider more general allegations of corruption.
It followed reports that the House of Lords Appointments Commission had blocked the appointment of four of Prime Minister Tony Blair's nominations for peerages - all wealthy businessmen who had made loans to Labour.
None were on the list of new working life peers when it was published on Monday. One Tory nominee - who had loaned the party £2m - also missed out on a seat in the upper house.
Mr Yates has already told MPs that he is prepared to widen the investigation to consider more general allegations of corruption.
Unlimited fine
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust describes itself as the "leading national body for secondary education in England, part funded by the DfES (Education Department), delivering the government's Specialist Schools and Academies programme.
"The government's aim is that by 2008 all schools will be specialist, except those planned to be Academies," it adds.
Anyone found guilty under the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act - designed to deal with those who both give and accept honours under inducement - could face imprisonment for up to two years or fined an unlimited amount. The Act was introduced after the scandal of the early 1920s when David Lloyd George was offering peerages and lesser honours at a price.
The really chilling thing about this is that Mr Smith has been arrested . Until the passing of the Serious Organised Crime Act you could only be arrested if there was reasonable suspicion that you had committed a serious offence i.e one acttracting a term of imprisonment of more than five years . David Blunkett however abolished this and you can now be arrested for any offence no matter how minor rather than be invited to be interviewed under caution and charged or summonsed to court . This is how police powers operate in dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. I can't see any reason why Mr Smith was arrested other than grandstanding . These powers for the police are open to wide abuse .
