25 September 2006 | Rebecca Ellinor

Home Office minister Liam Byrne is to sell his shares in a company that provides some UK police forces with procurement software.

Confirmation that the minister is disposing of his stake follows a report in The Mail on Sunday that he owns 21,000 shares in E-Government Solutions (EGS), a company that has contracts with eight police forces.

Byrne began the venture-backed computer company in 2000 and the paper claimed opposition MPs accused Byrne of a conflict of interest.

A Home Office spokeswoman told supplymanagement.com: "There is no conflict of interest, all the correct procedures have been followed in the upfront declaration of interests and the minister is in the active process of disposing of the shares to ensure there's no possibility of any misrepresentation of his position."

She added Byrne declared in the register of members' interests that he has share options in the firm.

EGS operates a number of public-sector markets providing buying organisations with access to existing OJEU-compliant contracts.

SMsep2006