By Paul Dicken
10 March 2010
Welsh Assembly members have backed proposals to have their pay and expenses entitlements set by an independent board.
The cross-party legislative committee that has been considering changes to the remuneration of AMs this week endorsed the measure, proposed by Presiding Officer Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas and the Assembly Commission.
The committee made only minor recommendations around the accountability of the board and its duty to consult AMs and their staff on proposals.
Committee chair Rosemary Butler said: ‘We believe significant progress had been made since the inception of the Assembly in gaining the trust of the public. It is important that the Assembly, as an institution, and Assembly members, as elected representatives, continue to build on this trust.’
The proposal to create a board follows an external review of the previous pay and expenses regime in August 2008, long before what Elis-Thomas called the ‘storm’ over MPs’ expenses in Westminster.
Alan Trench, research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and author of the blog Devolution matters, told Public Finance that the Assembly had long been committed to high levels of transparency and probity over expenses.
‘There have been a couple of [expenses-related] incidents that have raised questions but in comparison with Westminster they were not even eyebrow-lifting,’ he said.
The new regime in Wales, parts of which came into effect in November 2009, requires all claims to be backed up with explanations and documentary evidence. It also ends the link between AMs’ and MPs’ pay.
Trench said the regime in Wales was rigorous and almost ‘hair-shirt’, particularly in relation to housing. The entitlement to mortgage interest payments on second homes has been abolished and AMs representing areas furthest from Cardiff would live in second homes provided by the Assembly.
10 March 2010
Welsh Assembly members have backed proposals to have their pay and expenses entitlements set by an independent board.
The cross-party legislative committee that has been considering changes to the remuneration of AMs this week endorsed the measure, proposed by Presiding Officer Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas and the Assembly Commission.
The committee made only minor recommendations around the accountability of the board and its duty to consult AMs and their staff on proposals.
Committee chair Rosemary Butler said: ‘We believe significant progress had been made since the inception of the Assembly in gaining the trust of the public. It is important that the Assembly, as an institution, and Assembly members, as elected representatives, continue to build on this trust.’
The proposal to create a board follows an external review of the previous pay and expenses regime in August 2008, long before what Elis-Thomas called the ‘storm’ over MPs’ expenses in Westminster.
Alan Trench, research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and author of the blog Devolution matters, told Public Finance that the Assembly had long been committed to high levels of transparency and probity over expenses.
‘There have been a couple of [expenses-related] incidents that have raised questions but in comparison with Westminster they were not even eyebrow-lifting,’ he said.
The new regime in Wales, parts of which came into effect in November 2009, requires all claims to be backed up with explanations and documentary evidence. It also ends the link between AMs’ and MPs’ pay.
Trench said the regime in Wales was rigorous and almost ‘hair-shirt’, particularly in relation to housing. The entitlement to mortgage interest payments on second homes has been abolished and AMs representing areas furthest from Cardiff would live in second homes provided by the Assembly.
