House of Lords Commissioner for Standards upholds my complaint about the conduct of Lord O’Neill of Gatley

On 21 May 2021, the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, upheld my complaint about the conduct of Lord O’Neill of Gatley, the former Treasury minister.
Here’s the Commissioner’s report: https://www.parliament.uk/contentassets/b800fc500b2c48aba59378f7552566c8/report-on-lord-oneill-of-gatley.pdf.

Daily Mail reports Lords Standards Commissioner’s upholding of my complaint about the conduct of Lord Botham

On 18 May 2021, Sebastian Shakespeare led his diary column in the Daily Mail newspaper with the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards’ upholding of my complaint about the conduct of Lord Botham (see previous post).
Hat tip to whoever wrote the headline, “’Beefy’ is caught out over rules at the other Lords”:

On 17 May 2021, the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, upheld my complaint about the conduct of Lord Botham, the former England cricketer and charity walker.
Here’s the Commissioner’s report: https://www.parliament.uk/contentassets/b800fc500b2c48aba59378f7552566c8/report-on-lord-botham-17-05-21.pdf.

On 6 May 2021, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued an “ad alert” against Health Broadcast, a fake limited company flogging dubious “health products” (https://www.asa.org.uk/resource/ad-alert-health-broadcast.html).
The advertising watchdog acted after Health Broadcast’s continued non-compliance with the advertising rules, the latest example of which was the subject of my complaint the previous day.
On 5 May 2021, the Daily Mail newspaper ran a Health Broadcast ad where the company omitted to identify itself – and made ridiculous health claims about the product, “Copper Comfort Insoles” (screen shot in Figure 1).

What’s more, my same-day complaint was the FOURTH I’ve made to the ASA about this silly ad (see 9 April 2021 post). Previous complaints were made on (all 2021) 31 January, 16 March and 4 April.
The “ad alert” means the national/regional press will have to contact the CAP copy advice team before accepting any ads from Health Broadcast (CAP, the Committee of Advertising Practice Ltd).
The ASA said in an email: “This is a strong sanction that works effectively and our compliance team use them to bring advertisers into line with the advertising rules.”
Let’s hope I don’t have to make a fifth complaint about this ad.

Back on Track (“BOT”) is a veterans charity set up by Dr Aamer Khan and Lesley Reynolds, the married couple behind The Harley Street Skin Clinic, a favourite of celebrities. Dr Khan is a patron of the charity, while his wife, who styles herself “skincare consultant”, is a trustee.
BOT, whose patrons include TV presenter and author Andrea McLean, “provides private medical care to veterans that is not available on the NHS”, according to the Twitter biography (screen shot in Figure 1).

On 22 February 2021, BOT said in a tweet: “Dr Khan writes about PTSD… and the products he recommends that help”, with a link to a page on the charity website (screen shot in Figure 2).

The page, which BOT has since removed, was entitled “Post-traumatic stress disorder” and dated 31 July 2020 (screen shots in Figure 3-4).

On 8 March 2021, I complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) about the tweet from BOT, and the page on the charity website to which it links.
On 7 April 2021, the advertising regulator upheld my complaint in an email.
The ASA’s intervention prompted BOT to delete the page on the charity website.
What’s wrong with the tweet? It’s an undisclosed marketing communication from MariPharm, a producer of Cannabidiol (CBD) oil products. (MariPharm is a trading name of UK CBD Distribution Ltd.)
Meanwhile, there are two problems with the “Post-traumatic stress disorder” page on the BOT website.
The first problem: here Dr Khan plugs MariPharm, without disclosure of interest. That is, Dr Khan is in fact a paid adviser to MariPharm (screen shot in Figure 5). Further, BOT is actually an “affiliate” marketer for MariPharm: the latter pays commission to the former for referrals. Hovering the mouse over the “it’s worth a visit” link to the MariPharm website reveals use of an “aff” variable to identify affiliate BOT (Figure 4). Nevertheless the charity omits to disclose its commercial relationship with the firm.

The second problem: This is even worse. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has NOT licensed CBD products for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet here Dr Khan, a GMC-registered medical doctor, recommends MariPharm CBD oil products for PTSD!
Talking of the GMC (General Medical Council), its medical register shows Dr Khan has restrictions on his practice (“conditions”).
The tweet of 22 February 2021 isn’t a one-off. On 2 April 2021, the charity/Dr Khan again promoted MariPharm with reference to PTSD, without disclosure of interest (screen shot in Figure 6).