Member News
By Philippa Silverman - 11th February 2011
The MPs expenses system risks excluding "real people" from political life, warns standards watchdog.
The chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life has joined calls for reform of the system, warning "insufficient attention" had been given to ensuring the system helped MPs could do their jobs.
Sir Christopher Kelly was responding to a consultation being held by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) nine months after it took charge of administrating allowances.
He said in particular people with familiy commitments could struggle in the role of an MP unless changes were made.
"It would be a tragedy if the implementation of an expenses scheme were to have the effect of inadvertently and unnecessarily limiting access to the role of MP for those with young families, caring responsibilities or other challenging personal circumstances," he said.
Sir Christopher renewed calls for MPs accommodation arrangements to be managed by an outside agency and for an all-out ban on the employment of family members at a cost to the taxpayer.
He also called for Ipsa to give parliamentarians advice on the new regulations, although it is ultimately down to MPs to ensure claims are legitimate.
Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, Sir Christopher called on Ipsa to rethink its measures on family life to ensure "real people" can work in Parliament.
"Ipsa was set up in a hurry, it was set up on the back of a scandal, a lot of ill feeling in the public mind about what MPs did," he said.
"It's very important that one should never forget that the prime purpose of an expenses scheme for MPs, as it is for any other group of people with an expenses scheme, is to help them do their jobs properly.
"And there's enough anecdotal evidence and evidence from those MPs who talk to us to suggest that there are a number of things where Ipsa may want to think again."
He added: "No one wants the situation in which MPs are able to maintain two complete family homes, one in their constituency and one in Westminster.
"But on the other hand you do want to make it possible for members with families or with disabilities or with caring responsibilities to have some semblance of another normal life while they are in both places."
Sir Christopher's comments come in the same week that the Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young, and the Speaker, John Bercow, published similarly critical submissions to the consultation.
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