She had confronted allegations that she failed to declare the meeting with Hoare, whose company was seeking to build a £400m freight railway depot in the Hertfordshire green belt at the time, and that the lunch included a discussion about the controversial planning application for the site, which Villiers denied despite a complaint from fellow Conservative MP Anne Main.
In a letter to Main, Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood said there was "no evidence that decisions were affected by lobbying on behalf of Helioslough or other parties".