Government Ministers take the biscuit!

Having read this article in the Guardian detailing the rules for governement ministers declaring hospitaility, our Diversity Officer, Jane Dent, remembered how she had to handle any such 'perks'..

Jane comments, "Having read with interest the anomaly of government ministers not needing to declare hospitality they had received, it took me back to days as a Community Staff Nurse in Scotland. In the community we spent a lot of time dealing with intractable leg ulcers and other long term conditions, always trying to find the best treatment or therapy for our patients. Occasionally we would read about a product in our journals that seemed to hold hope of an advance in therapy. Nothing world shattering but really useful to us. If it seemed useful to us and colleagues we would ask a rep for the product to spend time with us, over our very limited lunch time, to explain the product and if we were lucky give us some samples to try on specific patients . Sometimes the reps brought sandwiches, crisps and if we were really lucky donuts!
But we had to declare any food we received. We weren't able to lobby our managers, we could only present facts of treatment use. Our prescription dressing products were tightly controlled and budgeted for.

So why was there one rule for us and our limited gastronomic hospitality and not over government ministers? Who is more likely to be persuaded? The consumer of supermarket sandwiches or the recipient of fine dining?"