Details of MPs’ expenses could still be exempted from FoI Act

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Tags: Gordon Brown, Green Book, Harriet Harman, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Labour

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Published on: January 22, 2009

Details of MPs‘ expenses could still be exempted from FoI Act

Both Labour and the Conservatives decline to rule out a future move to keep some aspects of MPs’ claims secret

David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 January 2009 16.39 GMT
Article history

Labour and the Tories left the door open today for a future move to exempt the full details of MPs expenses from the Freedom of InformationAct.

Gordon Brown waImage via Wikipedias yesterday forced to withdraw plans to keep details of individual spending secret after the Conservatives made a late decision not to back the plans. In a debate today, Harriet Harman, the leader of the house, repeatedly declined to rule out new restrictions in the future, while Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the house, indicated that if new measures to strengthen audits of MPs’ claims worked, he might be in favour of dropping the call for the release of every receipt over £25.

Harman’s silence on the issue came as she confirmed that 1.2m receipts detailing MPs’ expenses going back to 2004 would be published once they had been processed by House of Commons authorities, at a cost of £2m.

She told MPs: “The house authorities will comply with all the requests that they have and I think there are some 180 in the pipeline.”

But individual receipts would not form part of a new regime for MPs’ expenses, which Harman said would prevent abuse and assure constituents that “public money is being properly spent”.

Image by Steve Punter via FlickrHer proposals, agreed by the Commons yesterday, extend the automatic reporting of MPs’ expenses from 14 to 26 categories, including revealing for the first time the annual cost of rent and mortgage interest payments on MPs’ second homes.

There will also be an updated version of the Green Book, which sets out rules for claiming expenses, a requirement for MPs to be subject to a “robust independent audit”, and a new committee on members’ allowances, which will meet in public and have an opposition majority.

She said full disclosure might continue to happen, particularly if journalists and the public continued to put in FoI requests, which would mean that all 646 MPs would have to disclose information at that level.

“We are not bound to do just the minimum of what we think the law requires.

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UK’s Brown backs down in MPs expenses row: transparency wins

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Tags: BBC NEWS, Conservative, Freedom of Information, Freedom of information legislation, Harriet Harman, House of Commons, Liberal Democrat

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Published on: January 21, 2009

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Brown backs down in expenses row

The government has shelved plans to prevent the publication of more details of MPs‘ expenses.

Downing Street had indicated Labour MPs would be required to support proposals exempting such information from Freedom of Information laws.

But a planned House of Commons vote has now been dropped after opposition parties refused to back the government.

The Conservatives accused ministers of a “u-turn” while the Lib Dems said it was a “humiliating climbdown”.

Long-running case

The row over expenses followed a long-running Freedom of Information case in which campaigners sought to get details of MPs’ expenses, which totalled £87.6m in 2006-7, published.

Last year the High Court ordered the Commons authorities to publish details, including all receipts, to back up claims made by 14 MPs under their second homes allowance.

It had been expected that all MPs’ expenses details would then be published but Commons leader Harriet Harman told MPs last week the government was bringing forward a plan to exempt MPs’ expenses from the scope of the FOI Act.

This would have seen expenses published under 26 headings but not the details of claims for individual items.

Downing Street had indicated that Labour MPs would be expected to support this policy in a vote on Thursday but the Conservatives and Lib Dems said they would oppose the move.

However, shortly after the end of prime minister’s questions, the government revealed the vote on the FOI proposal would not take place.

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said the move would be seen as a “screeching u-turn” by the government.

Ms Harman said the vote had been abandoned because of the “lack of cross-party support” and confirmed she would hold further discussions on how to proceed.

…

“If passed, this order would have had a catastrophic impact on the reputation of Parliament,” said Peter Facey, director of the pressure group Unlock Democracy.

“We now call on the parliamentary authorities to publish MPs expenses at the earliest opportunity.”

FULL ARTICLE from BBC NEWS:

FoI campaigners condemn MPs bid to hide expenses

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Tags: Freedom of information legislation, Harriet Harman, Information Tribunal, Matthew Elliott, Member of Parliament, Press Gazette, TaxPayers' Alliance

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Published on: January 19, 2009

FoI campaigners condemn MPs‘ bid to hide expenses

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15 January 2009
By PA Mediapoint, Press Gazette reporters

The Government has been accused of “disgraceful” behaviour after another bid was launched to sidestep a ruling ordering publication of details of MPs’ expenses under Freedom of Information law.
The Commons authorities have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds scanning and redacting about a million receipts from claims since losing a lengthy FoI battle last May.
But none of them will be released under plans set out by Leader of the House Harriet Harman

LONDON - JULY 30: Deputy leader of the Labour...

Image by Getty Images via Daylifethis afternoon.
Instead, the law will be changed retrospectively so that MPs’ expenses are published annually under 26 categories, rather than the current 13.
“The public will have more information than they ever have before and we will take it back to 2005 so that for all members, each year their allowances against 26 headings will be made public,” Harman told the Commons.
A spokesman for the Commons leader confirmed that if parliament approved the measures, the receipts would not be published – although the Information Tribunal and High Court had ordered that they should be.
But the House authorities said the process of redaction would continue at least until the proposals were passed.
Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers‘ Alliance said: “It is an absolute disgrace that the Government are going to such absurd lengths to keep MPs’ expenses secret from the very people who pay the bills.
“This is taxpayers’ money, these are elected representatives and the people have a right to know how their money is being spent.
“These desperate measures will only harm Parliament’s standing by making people wonder what it is that politicians have to hide.”

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...the legislation in Nova Scotia is deliberately more generous to its citizens and is intended to give the public greater access to information that might otherwise be contemplated in the other provinces and territories in Canada. Nova Scotia's lawmakers clearly intended to provide for the disclosure of all government information (subject to certain limited and specific exemptions) in order to facilitate informed public participation in policy formulation; ensure fairness in government decision making; and permit the airing and reconciliation of divergent views. No other province or territory has gone so far in expressing such objectives.