MPS should be banned from carrying out paid consultancy, a new report has concluded.
The recommendation comes in a report by the Commons’ Standards Committee, looking in to how the code of conduct for MPs can be improved.
It follows a series of high-profile cases of paid lobbying or working for outside bodies by MPs, including former Tory Owen Paterson who quit his job after lobbying the government on behalf of two firms for around £100,000 a year.
Mr Paterson claimed he did not have a chance to appeal the ruling, which found him in breach of the rules.
READ MORE: 'You tried to overturn a two year probe in two hours': MPs react after Owen Paterson u-turn
While the report recommends banning MPs from “providing paid parliamentary advice, consultancy, or strategy services” it states that those who do take up other positions should also provide a written copy of their contract to the Standards Commissioner.
It explains: “Members who intend to enter into paid roles permissible by these provisions, produce to the Commissioner, in advance of any engagement, a written contract specifying the role and seeking the comfort of the Commissioner’s guidance that the role is (or is not) permissible.”
This means it would be up to the Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone to decide whether any contract was within the scope of the rules, with the potential to block appointments if it was deemed a conflict of interest.
A senior judge is also to be drafted in by the Standards Commission to review the current disciplinary procedures for MPs who are accused of breaking the rules.
The report explains that the “senior judicial figure” will look at whether the current system is “is compatible with fairness and natural justice, and with Article 6 ECHR, and if appropriate to make recommendations or set out options for improvements to the system.”
It also recommends ending an exemption which currently allows ministers not to register gifts and hospitality they receive in their ministerial roles in the Commons register of interests.
Ministers are only required to register these gifts in the ministerial register currently. The change would ensure that all outside interests were able to be seen in the one place.
The committee has made a series of other recommendations, including sanctions for MPs who harass others online, as well as aligning the ministerial code of conduct more closely with that for MPs.
The report emphasises the need to maintain free speech, and adds that MPs’ “views and opinions should continue to be excluded from investigation”.
However the committee said it was “concerned that the new world of communications created by social media has created a situation in which personal attacks and abusive content directed at individuals can be widely disseminated in a way which may not break the law but which, in extreme cases, can be regarded as disreputable.”
The report recommends that MPs who “subject anyone to unreasonable and excessive personal attack in any medium” are able to be investigated for breaking the code of conduct – a rule already in place in the Welsh Senedd and Northern Ireland Assembly.
Chairman of the Committee on Standards, Chris Bryant MP, said: “The past few weeks have seen a number of issues raised about MP’s standards, but the key overarching issue here is about conflict of interest. The evidence-based report published by my Committee sets out a package of reforms to bolster the rules around lobbying and conflicts of interest.
“These aren’t the final proposals we’re putting to the House. This report is the Committee’s informed view on what changes we need to tighten up the rules and crack down on conflicts of interests following a detailed evidence-led inquiry.
“We will consult and hear wider views on what we’ve published today before putting a final report to the House for a decision in the New Year. If approved, these robust proposals will empower the standards system in Parliament to better hold MPs who break the rules to account.”
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