By Ned Simons - 10th May 2011
It has been revealed that 40 MPs are currently under investigation for receiving parliamentary expense claims they should not have been allowed.
However, the expenses watchdog has stressed they are "minor infractions".
Sir Ian Kennedy, the chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), revealed the figure to a Commons committee this morning.
But he said the issues were likely to be due to MPs getting to grips with the new expenses regime brought in after the election rather than serious abuses.
"They may be minor infractions to do with growing pains," he said.
"My understanding is that is the case".
He told the Speaker's committee on Ipsa that the inquiries being conducted by Ipsa's compliance officer, who investigates accusations of wrong doing, were preliminary and would never grow in to "formal investigation".
And he said he did not believe the investigations indicated in any way a return to the abuse of expense claims that were seen in the past.
"What we're seeing now is MPs living within the rules, behaving according go the rules, I pay tribute to them in that regard," he said.
To the surprise of Kennedy, Lib Dem Bob Russell revealed he was one of the MPs under investigation.
He said he suspected it had been initiated by a political opponent in order to damage his reputation.
"The claim has been agreed and paid by Ipsa, there is absolutely nothing wrong," he said.
"I am one of the 40 against whom a complaint has been made, I am pretty confident I know from where," he said.
He added: "How many of those enquires put through to the compliance officer have emanated from political opponents or the media?"
The committee, chaired by John Bercow, was hearing from Sir Ian about Ipsa's estimated operating budget for the next financial year.
He was pressed over whether the practice of publishing details of MPs expense claims every two months represented value for money.
Sir Ian told the committee that value for money was also about "what is valuable" as well the financial cost.
"It is valuable currently to have a system to which the public can look at regularly and routinely to discover how their money has been dispersed.
"That is a valuable political contribution to what was one of our important remits."
He said the way in which the details were published ensured the reputations of MPs were not damaged as well as making sure the public got to see what it wanted it know.
Bob Evans, Ipsa's director of finance, told the committee that the expenses body understood that a reputation was "a precious thing" to an MP and that they felt it was worth the cost to keep errors to a minimum when processing claims.
"If that costs perhaps a little bit more than cursory check we think that is worth it," he said.
But Conservative Charles Walker warned that news that 40 MPs were being investigated was "hardly likely to restore the standing of Parliament" or help the reputation of MPs.
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