Overseas visits made by the member or the member’s spouse or partner substantially arising out of membership of the House, except where the cost of the visit was wholly borne by the member or by United Kingdom public funds.
Members should enter in the Register the date, destination and purpose of the visit and the name of the government, organisation or individual which met the cost. Where only part of the cost was borne by an outside source (for example the cost of accommodation but not the cost of travel), those details should be stated briefly. When an overseas visit was arranged by a registered all-party parliamentary group or by a party backbench group, it is not sufficient to name the group as the sponsor of the visit: the government, organisation or person ultimately meeting the cost should be specified.
The following categories of visit, together with any hospitality associated with such a visit and available to all participants, are exempt from registration:
visits which are paid for by, or which are undertaken on behalf of, His Majesty’s Government, or which are made on behalf of an international organisation of which the United Kingdom Government is a member;
visits abroad with, or on behalf of, a select committee of the House, including a joint committee;
visits undertaken on behalf of, or under the auspices of, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, the British-American Parliamentary Group, the Council of Europe, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly or the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme or the Industry and Parliament Trust;
Peers’ Representative Travel, paid for by the House of Lords Overseas Office;
official travel by the Lord Speaker or his representative;
visits to European Union parliaments and institutions paid for by the House on the authority of the Clerk of the Parliaments;
visits arranged and paid for wholly by a political party;
visits paid for wholly by an institution of the European Union or by a political group of the European Parliament.
Visits which are unconnected with membership of the House (e.g. those made as part of the member’s employment or profession), or the cost of which does not exceed £500 in value, are also exempt from registration.
An entry made in this category will remain on the Register for a period of one year from the date on which the visit was made. A visit which, contrary to the requirements of the Code, is registered more than one month after it has concluded shall however remain on the Register for one year after the date of disclosure.