By Alex Klaushofer
The government’s Parliamentary Standards Bill, which is being rushed through Parliament before the summer recess on July 21, is not the way to clean up public life, leading standards experts say.
Tony Wright, the chair of the public administration select committee, gave evidence to the Committee on Standards in Public Life for its inquiry into MPs’ expenses, led by Sir Christopher Kelly. He agreed with committee member Elizabeth Vallance that the legislation was proceeding with ‘unseemly haste’.
‘I think it’s one of those cases where we’re in the “something must be done” moment,’ he said, adding that he was not convinced it was necessary to establish a new system to regulate MPs’ behaviour.
‘There’s another answer to the problem, which is to make sure that we have rules which are clear and firm, and a system for enforcing those rules.’
The basics for that system already existed, Wright added.
Former parliamentary standards commissioner Elizabeth Filkin also expressed reservations. Filkin left her post in 2002 amid claims that she had been chased out by MPs who disliked her rigorous approach to investigating claims of misconduct.
‘I’m particularly concerned about the legislation that is proposed in relation to the criminal law,’ she said.
Under the proposed legislation, MPs giving ‘false or misleading information’ in their allowance claims could go to prison or face an unlimited fine. Filkin argued that while MPs should be subject to the law, there should be proportionate penalties for lesser offences.
‘You’ve got to have a system in which the organisation as a whole deals with poor behaviour – and you won’t get that if people are frightened,’ she said.
She described the package of proposed measures – which include the establishment of an external body to oversee MPs’ expense claims – as a ‘start’ that did not go far enough to establish new standards.
MPs should be obliged to submit receipts and keep logs for their expenditure like the rest of the public sector, she argued.
‘If you work for a local authority, you know that someone will come and check whether the mileage is what you said it was. You have to have this check.’
Wright said he was surprised that the profits made by MPs through capital gains on properties paid for by the taxpayer had not caused more public outrage. ‘It’s still the incipient scandal,’ he said.
‘One of the bizarre features in what’s happened is that people have got themselves far more exercised about the less significant abuses,’ he added.
‘MPs like me could claim the full whack – £24,000 – and buy a house in the Cotswolds and get less grief for that than those who bought a large TV.’
The government’s Parliamentary Standards Bill, which is being rushed through Parliament before the summer recess on July 21, is not the way to clean up public life, leading standards experts say.
Tony Wright, the chair of the public administration select committee, gave evidence to the Committee on Standards in Public Life for its inquiry into MPs’ expenses, led by Sir Christopher Kelly. He agreed with committee member Elizabeth Vallance that the legislation was proceeding with ‘unseemly haste’.
‘I think it’s one of those cases where we’re in the “something must be done” moment,’ he said, adding that he was not convinced it was necessary to establish a new system to regulate MPs’ behaviour.
‘There’s another answer to the problem, which is to make sure that we have rules which are clear and firm, and a system for enforcing those rules.’
The basics for that system already existed, Wright added.
Former parliamentary standards commissioner Elizabeth Filkin also expressed reservations. Filkin left her post in 2002 amid claims that she had been chased out by MPs who disliked her rigorous approach to investigating claims of misconduct.
‘I’m particularly concerned about the legislation that is proposed in relation to the criminal law,’ she said.
Under the proposed legislation, MPs giving ‘false or misleading information’ in their allowance claims could go to prison or face an unlimited fine. Filkin argued that while MPs should be subject to the law, there should be proportionate penalties for lesser offences.
‘You’ve got to have a system in which the organisation as a whole deals with poor behaviour – and you won’t get that if people are frightened,’ she said.
She described the package of proposed measures – which include the establishment of an external body to oversee MPs’ expense claims – as a ‘start’ that did not go far enough to establish new standards.
MPs should be obliged to submit receipts and keep logs for their expenditure like the rest of the public sector, she argued.
‘If you work for a local authority, you know that someone will come and check whether the mileage is what you said it was. You have to have this check.’
Wright said he was surprised that the profits made by MPs through capital gains on properties paid for by the taxpayer had not caused more public outrage. ‘It’s still the incipient scandal,’ he said.
‘One of the bizarre features in what’s happened is that people have got themselves far more exercised about the less significant abuses,’ he added.
‘MPs like me could claim the full whack – £24,000 – and buy a house in the Cotswolds and get less grief for that than those who bought a large TV.’
