Industry | 2009.06.24
A year in jail: the cost of false expenses?
• Harman proposes new penalties for Commons
• Dismay on backbenches at speed of reforms
The government has published plans that could see MPs who flout expenses rules jailed for up to a year.
Offences of making a false expense claim, failing to register a relevant interest and breaking rules on paid lobbying may be on the statute book by the time MPs break for their summer recess in the last week of July.
But the move was criticised by MPs concerned the government\'s plans were creating confusion, coming as they do in advance of a new expenses regime due to be announced in the autumn by Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the committee on standards in public life.
Today that commitee held the second of nine sessions as it seeks to develop the rules, and the Liberal Democrat MP Nick Harvey, a member of the estimates commitee which oversees the pay and allowance system for MPs, gave evidence in which he criticised his parliamentary colleagues for failing to reform the expenses system last July.
"The debate last July on our report represented a train crash," he said. "Last week when Speaker Martin made his valedictory address he admonished the house, rightly in my view, for missing an opportunity back then. While our proposals would not have been the last word on the subject of parliamentary allowances by any means there is no doubt that if there had been the opportunity taken MPs would have been in a much better position when the recent publication came. We knew last July that it was coming."
Yesterday the Commons leader, Harriet Harman, laid out the government\'s plans for an independent regulator – the independent parliamentary standards authority – which could penalise MPs who break the rules.
She said MPs who made false allowance claims could face criminal charges on three counts: for knowingly providing false or misleading information in a claim for an allowance; failing to comply with the rules on registration; or breaching the rules which prohibit paid advocacy.
The penalty for breaching the first of the three rules would be up to 12 months in prison or an unlimited fine – something which brings Westminster MPs in line with local councillors and MSPs.
A commissioner for parliamentary investigations would be appointed to investigate potential abuses. The authority, with a total staff of five, would be able to force MPs to repay money and amend entries in the register of member\'s interests.
It will also be able to recommend to the house that MPs have their salaries withheld, or that they be suspended or expelled. It could also refer the most serious matters to the police.
Though this was expected by MPs, many were surprised by the authority\'s proposed powers. Peter Kilfoyle, Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, told the BBC Radio 4 PM programme that he would prefer to wait for Kelly\'s report.
Harman also announced rules on second jobs, due to come into effect next month, which Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the house, criticised, saying other MPs had told him they were unworkable.
The Labour backbencher Sir Stuart Bell seized on Duncan\'s speech, suggesting it showed the government didn\'t enjoy the cross-party support necessary for the reforms to reach the statute book before parliament\'s summer break.
The Lib Dem MP David Heath was concerned about the rules on lobbying. He said: "I don\'t want to be in a position where no member … can visit a factory in their constituency and accept a cup of tea and then come back and say something in this house about the industry or their own constituency."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/23/mps-expenses-face-year-jail
