At least ploughing through the online expenses of Westminster MPs yesterday had an air of finality about it. No-one had to rely on The Daily Telegraph to buy the information on
a dodgy CD, as the parliament had decided to self-publish the information, even if some of it was redacted to ensure privacy and security.
The Government did accept the inevitable and announced that new laws would be introduced so that MPs who abuse their expenses from now on face being fined by the Parliament’s standards watchdog.
The proposals are based on the recommendations by Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, who was charged with cleaning up the whole system.
None of it would have happened if freedom of information campaigners like Heather Brooke had not won their battle to have MPs’ expenses published.
The easiest and quickest way to restore the system would be to accept Ms Brooke’s advice for regular, transparent publication of expenses along Holyrood lines that renders the whole process rather boring and dry.
Behind the bulk of expenses all published at once a volume of sinning might have been hidden, but there was still enough embarrassment for some politicians to have to relive the horrors of the duck house summer when all MPs were fair game in the media.
Top of the pile, quite literally, came Quentin Davies, the Defence Procurement Minister, who had apparently claimed for the cost of repairing a bell tower on his constituency mansion. Mr Davies, who defected from the Tories to Labour in 2007, was paid £5376 by the Commons fees office for a £20,000 claim.
He “emphatically” denied trying to claim for the bell tower as part of bill for roof repairs.
“I obtained from the same builder quotations for work on the guttering and to repair the roof, and to repair the bell tower which is a decorative feature on the roof,” he said.
“I accepted his quotes together and he subsequently sent me a single invoice for both jobs. With hindsight, to avoid confusion, I should have asked for separate invoices.
“I did not claim, however, in respect of it and I never had any intention of doing so.”
The Prime Minister Gordon Brown repaid £500 he had claimed to repaint his summer house, even though he had broken no rules.
The release covers claims for costs incurred by MPs staying away from their main homes in 2008/09 and the first quarter of 2009/10 -- initially under the Commons Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) and then under the Personal Additional Accommodation Expenditure (Pace) that replaced it in April this year.
The receipts published straddle the period -- beginning in May this year -- during which The Daily Telegraph published details of previous claims, sparking massive controversy, and many MPs may have been cautious in what they claimed.
The total expenses bill for Scotland’s 59 MPs came to just more than £1 million, which is in line with previous years. There was a four-way tie for the MPs claiming the absolute maximum additional costs allowance of £24,006. Not surprisingly, most of these high claiming MPs represent seats with have rock-solid majorities.
Those with slimmer margins lowered their profiles, willingly dropping to mid-table standings so that their expenses would not become a campaign issue.
Eric Joyce, the notoriously pricey Falkirk MP, surrendered his position as the most expensive politician in Scotland, although a huge muddle over his claims still mired him in controversy. Mr Joyce was strongly criticised by the Fees Office for abusing his House of Commons travel card on journeys to Congo, Kenya and Japan totalling £4985.60. When the apologetic Falkirk MP did not repay the sum, the authorities warned they would deduct it from his regular hotel accommodation claims.
Others were shabby with their claims, too. The files show the SNP’s Angus MacNeil was allowed to submit his expenses forms late, but only after a good old whine that he lived in the Outer Hebrides so it would not be “environmentally sensible” for him to deliver them by hand. However, most MPs and the officials began to exhibit a bit more caution about the business in 2008.
Ian Davidson MP deducted the £62 court summons for late payment from his claim for council tax but that was not enough for the Fees office officials, who also took another £3 off for court cost charges.
Eight Scottish MPs changed the designation of their second home but there is no suggestion that they were involved in flipping, the practice of making one’s second home one’s
primary residence to avoid capital gains tax when it is sold.
Jim Devine MP, who was brought low in the original exposé of expenses, claimed £1350 for a shower replacement and a further £1632 for “repair and dilapidation work” on bathroom some months later. The payments were approved by the Fees Office, as were monthly £628 laundry and dry cleaning bills.
There was some hilarity and irony among the John Lewis linen and Aga heating oil receipts.
Glenrothes new boy Lindsay Roy had a claim for a £24 Babyliss hairdryer cruelly rejected and the former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, having been stung for two pornographic videos by her husband in the last release of expenses, claimed £555.74 for a television, £244.90 for DVD player and £611 for a new double bed and mattress. She also claimed £136 for coal.
Hundreds of MPs, including the three main UK party leaders, have already agreed to repay sums totalling thousands of pounds from the claims since 2004.
A further list of expenses, minus the repayments MPs have been asked to make by Sir Thomas Legg, who has reviewed their claims going back five years, will be published in January. MPs will not be alone in hoping that the whole saga is over then.
The expenses merry-go-round
A selection of some of the oddest MP’s expense claims:
James Arbuthnot submitted a claim for three garlic peelers.
Richard Bacon told the Commons expenses office that his ex-council flat second home was “too expensive” under the new rules and moved out, instead claiming £182.85 per night to stay in a hotel.
Liam Byrne’s claim for an air bed costing £50.92 was rejected.
Ben Chapman claimed for a £449 32in Panasonic LCD TV in June 2008, then £259 for a Samsung 19in TV the following month.
Jacqui Smith submitted claim for adult movies (watched by her husband Richard Timney). For good measure, she put in for a £555.74 widescreen HD TV.
Sir Patrick Cormack lodged a £2.97 claim for a pack of 24 cedar balls and £8.49 for a moth trap in November last year.
Barbara Follett claimed £487.65 for window cleaning and £650 for pest control.
Andrew George’s £9.99 claim for a hairdyer was rebuffed.
Sir Alan Haselhurst claimed £100 for logs and £36 for cleaning a play house.
Lembit Opik got an electrician to make two separate trips, costing £1791.50, from his Wales constituency to fix electrical problems in his London flat.
RECORD OF EXPENSES TABLE:
First name
Name
Constituency
Party
2008 -- 09
Michael
Connarty
Linlithgow & Falkirk East
Labour
24,006.00
Jim
McGovern
Dundee West
Labour
24,006.00
Mohammad
Sarwar
Glasgow Central
Labour
24,006.00
Jim
Sheridan
Paisley & Renfrewshire North
Labour
24,006.00
Brian
Donohoe
Ayrshire Central
Labour
23,995.96
Angus
Robertson
Moray
SNP
23,921.11
Ian
Davidson
Glasgow South West
Labour
23,866.89
Frank
Doran
Aberdeen North
Labour
23,788.56
Thomas
McAvoy
Rutherglen & Hamilton West
Labour
23,757.41
Jim
Devine
Livingston
Labour
23,658.72
Adam
Ingram
East Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagow
Labour
23,462.81
John
Barrett
Edinburgh West
Lib Dem
23,376.57
Malcolm
Bruce
Gordon
Lib Dem
22,816.42
Anne
Moffat
East Lothian
Labour
22,594.61
Anne
Begg
Aberdeen South
Labour
22,579.42
Rosemary
McKenna
Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
Labour
22,040.11
Danny
Alexander
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey
Lib Dem
22,025.41
Stewart
Hosie
Dundee East
SNP
21,962.51
Des
Browne
Kilmarnock & Loudoun
Labour
21,957.39
Eric
Joyce
Falkirk
Labour
21,805.93
Willie
Rennie
Dunfermline & West Fife
Lib Dem
21,709.26
John
Thurso
Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross
Lib Dem
21,633.19
Mike
Weir
Angus
SNP
21,544.21
Gordon
Banks
Ochil and South Perthshire
Labour
21,148.36
Charles
Kennedy
Ross, Skye & Lochaber
Lib Dem
21,101.52
John
Robertson
Glasgow North West
Labour
20,761.48
Russell
Brown
Dumfries & Galloway
Labour
20,668.21
Michael
Moore
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Lib Dem
20,387.05
Peter
Wishart
Perth & Perthshire North
SNP
20,123.75
Jo
Swinson
East Dunbartonshire
Lib Dem
19,859.28
John
Reid
Airdrie & Shotts
Labour
19,829.84
Tom
Harris
Glasgow South
Labour
19,741.93
Angus
MacNeil
Na h-Eileanan an Iar
SNP
19,464.94
David
Mundell
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale
Conservative
19,446.73
Alistair
Carmichael
Orkney & Shetland
Lib Dem
19,371.58
Jim
Murphy
Renfrewshire East
Labour
18,884.09
John
McFall
West Dunbartonshire
Labour
18,837.64
Jimmy
Hood
Lanark & Hamilton East
Labour
18,519.60
Anne
McGuire
Stirling
Labour
18,473.20
Katy
Clark
Ayrshire North & Arran
Labour
17,699.66
Sandra
Osborne
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock
Labour
16,601.36
Nigel
Griffiths
Edinburgh South
Labour
16,209.05
Alan
Reid
Argyll & Bute
Lib Dem
16,110.60
David
Cairns
Inverclyde
Labour
16,034.14
Frank
Roy
Motherwell & Wishaw
Labour
16,033.39
Ann
McKechin
Glasgow North
Labour
15,845.21
Sir Robert
Smith
West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine
Lib Dem
15,460.70
Sir Menzies
Campbell
Fife North East
Lib Dem
15,041.34
Mark
Lazarowicz
Edinburgh North & Leith
Labour
14,221.97
Tom
Clarke
Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill
Labour
12,905.00
David
Hamilton
Midlothian
Labour
12,727.11
Lindsay
Roy
Glenrothes
Labour
12,003.00
Alistair
Darling
Edinburgh South West
Labour
10,626.48
Douglas
Alexander
Paisley & Renfrewshire South
Labour
10,262.00
John
Mason
Glasgow East
SNP
9,920.88
Gavin
Strang
Edinburgh East
Labour
9,521.01
Gordon
Brown
Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath
Labour
9,492.05
Michael
Martin
Glasgow North East
Speaker
8,004.17
David
Marshall
Glasgow East (former)
Labour
2,977.56
Alex
Salmond
Banff & Buchan
SNP
588.94
Total
£ 1,103,425.31
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