Conservative MP Owen Paterson's suspension from the House of Commons has been put on hold this afternoon after allies proposed changes to the system.
The MP for North Shropshire in England was to be suspended for 30-days after the Commons Standards Committee found that the politician had breached lobbying rules.
However this has been put on hold after a vote was passed to amend the investigation system.
Here's everything you need to know about what has happened...
What did Owen Paterson do?
Owen Paterson is a paid consultant at Randox and Lynn's Country Foods, as well as his role as MP.
A report released by the committe found that Paterson had lobbied the Food Standards Agency and Department for International Development ministers on behalf of the company, which goes against Parliament's lobbying rules.
The committee found that Paterson had used his parliamentary office 16 times for meetings related to his business interests outwith his role as MP between October 2016 and February 2020.
He had also sent two letters regarding business interests on House of Commons branded notepaper.
The committee therefore advised a 30-day suspension from the House of Commons.
The former cabinet minister rejects that his actions breached rules, stating that his contact with ministers regarding the company were to alert ministers to problems with safety regulations.
He claimed he was pronounced guilty "without being spoken to" and that "no proper investigation was undertaken".
Why has Owen Paterson's suspension been suspended?
Today, Paterson's suspension from the House of Commons was halted after his allies claimed that the system of investigation was unfair.
They proposed changing the process of investigation, which was then voted through in Parliament today.
Conservative MPs were ordered to vote for the amendment, but most Labour and SNP MPs voted against it.
It was supported by 18 votes, with 250 in favour and 232 against.
Has Owen Paterson resigned?
As of Thursday afternoon, Owen Paterson has resigned as MP following backlash in the aftermath of the vote to amend the investigation system.
He handed in his resignation in a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here