Events | 2010.02.04
MPs' expenses: system 'deeply flawed', says Sir Thomas Legg
Report reveals MPs have so far repaid £800,000 of second home expenses
The system of MPs\' expenses was today condemned as "deeply flawed" with blame heaped on both MPs and the Commons fees office as 390 politicians found to have been in breach of allowances rules were told to pay back more than £1m.
Sir Thomas Legg\'s inquiry into MPs\' spending over five years today concludes that there was a "culture of deference" in which fees officials felt obliged to pay MPs\' claims regardless of the evidence they presented and in some cases the rules of the system.
Out of £55.5m spent on second-home expenses during the years under review, 390 MPs have been ordered by Legg to repay a total of £1.3m. Some £800,000 has been received and around £500,000 is still outstanding.
More than half – 52% – of the 752 current and former MPs who were investigated have been asked to repay cash.
The largest sums ordered to be repaid by sitting MPs – after appeals are taken into account – were: £42,458 by communities minister and Stevenage MP Barbara Follett, £36,250 by Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative MP for North Essex, £31,193 by Andrew MacKay (Conservative MP for Bracknell), £29,398 by John Gummer (Tory MP for Suffolk Coastal), £29,243 by MacKay\'s wife Julie Kirkbride, MP for Bromsgrove, and £24,878 by shadow defence secretary and Woodspring MP Liam Fox.
The report highlights MPs buying and renting homes from relatives and friends, acts which it says breached "propriety".
But it also heaps blame on the Commons fees office, saying the relationship between fees officials and MPs was "symbiotic" in the now discredited process. The system was "flawed" and the rules were "vague". Decisions taken by the fees office "lacked legitimacy" and many were "mistaken".
The prime minister\'s spokesman said today\'s report would help restore trust in the system. Harriet Harman, the leader of the house, said she would bring forward a vote in the house to dock MPs\' wages if they do not repay cash by the deadline of 22 February 22.
The controversy over MPs\' expenses erupted in May last year when the Daily Telegraph started publishing the details of claims that the parliamentary authorities were trying to keep secret. Legg, a former Whitehall mandarin, was asked to review all existing claims. Sir Paul Kennedy, a former judge, was asked to consider appeals from MPs against their payments.
Kennedy\'s report, also published this morning, reveals that 44 of the 75 MPs who appealed against orders to repay expenses, have won their appeals or had the amount they had to pay back reduced. He has reduced the £1.3m bill MPs have to repay by £185,000.
His report clashes with Legg\'s judgments. It says that in some circumstances decisions to retrospectively change the system were "damaging, unfair and wrong". His review of Peter Lilley\'s expenses conclude he can keep the £41,057.36 he was paid in interest payments on his mortgage, held jointly with his wife. "I am at a loss to understand why the review should state that what you did was not permitted under the ACA," it says. The solicitor general, Vera Baird, and the former home secretary Charles Clarke are both told they overpaid, after appealing to Kennedy.
Legg\'s review confirms that all three party leaders have made repayments: Gordon Brown repaid £13,723.04, David Cameron £965.45 and Nick Clegg £989.50.
The report says of the MPs subject to the most serious allegations, thought to include Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, that each has "no issues". Elsewhere in the document Legg notes that where an MP is under investigation by the police the case is excluded from his jurisdiction and that they are noted as having "no issues" for his inquiry.
Of the £1.3m repayments, mortgage and rent formed the biggest chunk of the bill. Some 208 MPs have been asked to return £711,000 for their second homes. Another £105,000 has been demanded for cleaning bills above the new £2,000 limit and £35,000 in wrongly or overclaimed council tax bills. Another £252,000 is demanded for unspecified costs.
Overall official figures released today show that MPs spent a total of £95,576,589.18 on all expenses in 2008-09. Fifty-one MPs claimed the maximum allowable for second homes. Mohammed Sarwar, the Labour MP for Glasgow Central, spent the most that year: £192,986.87. Sir Michael Spicer, Conservative MP for West Worcestershire, spent the most on communications: £24,817. And Eric Joyce, MP for Falkirk, spent the most on travel: £38,550.
Separately Sir Christopher Kelly, a former permanent secretary, was asked to review the system of expenses and then Sir Ian Kennedy, former head of the Healthcare Commission, was asked to set up the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) to revise then run a new expenses system. They too have clashed after Kelly accused Kennedy of softening his proposals .
A growing row over the conduct of the review – some MPs have publicly criticised the process today – is threatening to stretch the saga out despite pleas from senior politicians for MPs to pay up and put an end to it.
Gordon Brown\'s spokesman said today\'s publication was one part of a wider process of restoring faith in parliament. "The PM feels very strongly that this is one part of restoring trust in the way our political institutions have been operating and continue to operate," said the spokesman.
David Cameron said he hoped that today would "draw a line" under the whole row. "That will help us to move on and actually build a parliament that people can trust."
The Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker told BBC Radio 4\'s Today programme that Legg\'s process had been "sloppy" while Tory MP Ann Widdecombe said the review had been "lazy, incompetent and illogical". John Bercow, the Speaker, said: "We are witnessing the last remaining reels of a particularly grisly horror movie. It\'s been painful to observe, but the pain has been necessary."
Parliament has also today published expenses claims dating from April 2008 to June 2009 on a new searchable database designed to bring greater transparency to the system. Separately, details of MPs\' bookings of private dining rooms from 2004-09 will be published after claims some had been using the Commons facilities to fundraise for their parties.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/[...]ps-expenses-deeply-flawed-legg
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