On 15 December 2010, three former Labour ministers were stripped of their parliamentary passes after a Standards and Privileges Committee report rebuked them for breaching lobbying rules.
Ex-defence secretary Geoff Hoon had his Commons pass suspended for five years, former transport secretary Stephen Byers was banned for two years, and ex-sports minister Richard Caborn was suspended for six months.
The recommendations from the cross-party committee were endorsed by MPs without a vote.
The inquiry was launched after complaints were lodged against six former MPs - all of whom stood down at the general election - who gave interviews to a Sunday Times journalist posing as a representative of a fictitious lobbying company and inquiring about services they would be able to provide after leaving Parliament.
The complaints were made after sections of the interviews were broadcast on television.
However, the committee dismissed complaints against former ministers Patricia Hewitt and Adam Ingram and Tory MP Sir John Butterfill that arose from the same investigation.