Mps Expenses

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) published a consultation on MPs' expenses in January 2010 (ISBN 9780108508806). After considering the responses, IPSA here sets out the new scheme for the reimbursement of expenses incurred by MPs in doing their work. Its underlying principles are based on those proposed by the Committee of Standards in Public Life (12th report, Cm. 7724, ISBN 9780101772426) with supplementary standards from IPSA. The scheme aims to be fair, workable and transparent. Transparency is critical if public confidence in Parliament is to be restored, and this underlies the basing of the scheme on expenses rather than on an allowances based system. Expenses will be reimbursed on presentation of a receipt or other evidence of expenditure. Chapters cover: process for making claims; process for the determination and review of claims; general conditions; accommodation expenses; London area living payment; travel and subsistence expenses; staffing expenditure; constituency office rental expenditure; general administrative expenditure; winding-up expenses; miscellaneous expenses. The new scheme is to be operational for the new Parliament following the forthcoming general election.

It was the biggest political scandal for a generation. The Speaker of the House and 5 members of the Cabinet resigned. The Legg enquiry ordered MPs to pay back over £1 million of wrongly claimed expenses. 381 MPs will be forced to pay back an average £3,000. 3 MPs and 1 Lord face criminal charges. No Expenses Spared is the fascinating account of the journalistic scoop that changed the face of British politics. It tells the story of one whistleblower and a small team of dedicated journalists who worked in secret to pore through more than a million expenses documents, braved the threat of legal action and political pressure to reveal the truth.

Supersedes HC 501, session 2009-10 (ISBN 9780102964974)

This study examines the evolution and political consequences of the 2009 British MPs' expenses scandal. Despite claims of a revolution in British politics, we show how the expenses scandal had a limited, short-term impact.

Seeks views on the content and administration of the MPs' expenses scheme. This title includes chapters that cover: scope of the consultation; principles of the scheme; working as an MP; expenses and allowances; administering the expenses scheme; working from two locations - accommodation for MPs; travel and subsistence; and, staff for MPs.

Under the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, IPSA became responsible for creating a new system to pay MPs expenses and is now responsible for running and regulating that system. IPSA's operating costs in 2010-11 were £6.4 million, its staff is now reduced from 88 to around 60. Between May 2010 and March 2011, IPSA processed 134, 696 separate claim lines, paying out some £118 million. This report examines the value for money that IPSA has achieved. It concludes that whilst the new scheme is clearly preventing misuse of money, IPSA did not initially have sufficient regard to the impact its scheme was having on the ability of MPs to fulfil their duties. IPSA needs to accelerate streamlining of its own procedures and give greater priority to minimising costs necessarily falling to MPs

This year's, the fourth, review of the MPs' Business costs & expenses scheme is much about refining rules rather than making substantive changes. It pays special attention to MPs' needs for staff. It gives MPs a clear budget limit for staff, but one that allows flexibility so as to reflect the differences in their ways of work. This Review also explored the separation between parliamentary functions and party political activities

A parliamentary scandal that dominates the headlines. The resignation of major party figures. Commentators and citizens wondering if the British government—and the people’s faith in it—will survive. Before Brexit, another major crisis rocked the foundation of government in the country: the expenses scandal of 2009. Featuring interviews with the members of parliament, journalists, and officials close to the center of the turmoil, An Extraordinary Scandal tells the story of what really happened. Andrew Walker, the tax expert who oversaw the parliamentary expenses system, and Emma Crewe, a social scientist specializing in the institutions of parliament, bring fascinating perspectives—from both inside and outside parliament—to this account. Far from attempting provide a defense of any the parties involved, An Extraordinary Scandal explains how the parliament fell out of step with the electorate and became a victim of its own remote institutional logic, growing to become at odds with an increasingly open, meritocratic society. Charting the crisis from its 1990s origins—when Westminster began, too slowly, to respond to wider societal changes—to its aftermath in 2010, the authors examine how the scandal aggravated the developing crisis of trust between the British electorate and Westminster politicians that continues to this day. Their in-depth research reveals new insight into how the expenses scandal acted as a glimpse of what was to come, and they reveal where the scandal’s legacy can be traced in the new age of mistrust and outrage, in which politicians are often unfairly vulnerable to being charged in the court of public opinion by those they represent.