A SHADOW minister has apologised "unreservedly" after failing to declare sooner that a trade union held a share in his home.

Labour's Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) was ruled to have twice breached rules governing MPs' interests following an investigation by the Commons standards watchdog.

Parliamentary standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson found Mr Lavery had failed to register that the National Union of Miners (Northumberland Area), his former employer, had held a 15 per cent share in his property until May 2013.

She noted this should have been declared on the register of interests between May 2010, when he was first elected, and May 2013.

Ms Hudson added a further breach occurred as the NUM's interest in his property should have been declared before Mr Lavery tabled a written question on the deep-mining industry in March 2013.

Mr Lavery, raising a point of order in the Commons, referenced the watchdog's report and said: "I wish to apologise to the House fully and unreservedly for what was a genuinely inadvertent breach of the rules, with which I have at all times sought to comply."

Speaker John Bercow said he was "extremely grateful" to Mr Lavery for his remarks, adding: "I think it will have been heard and appreciated by the House."