THE Nationalist Lord Provost of Edinburgh has been found guilty of breaching the Councillors’ Code of Conduct by failing to declare he owns a Highlands hotel.

Frank Ross was today censured by the Standards Commission for Scotland after accepting he failed to include his majority shareholding in the enterprise in his register of interests.

After hearing evidence on the case, a Commission panel imposed a “severe and formal reprimand” on the capital’s £38,000-a-year civic head but stopped short of suspending him.

Cllr Ross, the SNP member for the Corstorphine/Murrayfield ward since 2012, was informed of the hearing but chose not to attend, submitting a written explanation instead.

After the finding, he apologised for his"oversight".

The hearing was prompted by a complaint from the Lothians Tory MSP Miles Briggs, who reported Mr Ross to the Commission after a Herald investigation in April.

The hearing heard Mr Ross, a trained accountant, set up a company called Silverfjord Kingussie Ltd in February 2015, in which he held 82 per cent of the shares.

It later paid £160,000 for the 11-bed Silverfjord Hotel in Kingussie, nine miles from Mr Ross’s £350,000 second home in Newtonmore.

However the shareholding was not registered in Mr Ross’s register until April 2017.

Mr Ross’s explanation was that he did not believe registration was necessary at first, as the company was initially dormant.

He said that in October 2016, after the firm became active, he put a hand-written note about the shares in the council’s internal mail in the expectation it would be added to his register.

However the hearing heard there was no distinction between shares in a dormant and active company, and as Mr Ross’s holding was above the registrable threshold it should have been included on his register.

The hearing also heard the council’s monitoring officer had no record of any hand written note from Mr Ross being received by the relevant council department.

Mr Ross, 58, added other interests to his register in December 2015 and March and September 2016 but did not check if his shares had been included.

The Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life, who investigated the complaint, concluded Mr Ross had contravened the Code of Conduct for failing to register the shares.

The Standards Commission hearing panel agreed, and imposed the censure.

Panel chair Professor Kevin Dunion said the panel had been “concerned” that Cllr Ross had wrongly assumed he did not have to register shares when his company was dormant.

Mr Ross’s excuse that his hotel was outside Edinburgh was also irrelevant.

Prof Dunion said: “We wish to emphasis that the obligation to register a shareholding is an absolute requirement and integral part of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.

“The registration of interests should not be seen by councillors as merely a tickbox exercise as it is a fundamental part of the ethical standards framework.

“It provides the opportunity for openness and transparency in a councillor’s role and affords members of the public the opportunity to consider whether a councillor’s interests may or may not influence their discussion and decision-making.”

Mr Briggs said: “This censure is a very serious reprimand for Frank Ross and I very much share the Commission’s surprise and concern that Councillor Ross wrongly assumed he did not have to register shares in a dormant company when this is a very clear obligation under the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.



“This censure is highly embarrassing for the city’s Lord Provost and for the SNP in Edinburgh and nationally.

“Many Edinburgh residents will also feel that SNP bosses in the city should themselves consider whether they should look at taking their own disciplinary action against Frank Ross given the seriousness of this matter.”

Mr Ross said: “I corrected the error as soon as it was brought to my attention. I fully accept responsibility and apologise for the oversight.”