Whilst the Assembly Conservative Group seek to rescue their reputations by promising to introduce ‘robust guidelines’ for their assembly members expenses claims, MPs have decided to adopt the principles of secrecy and opacity in relation to the way they spend taxpayers money.
The UK Government has laid before Parliament a draft Order under section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This Order, if approved, will limit the information which the House of Commons and House of Lords are required to disclose under the Act in relation to expenses claims by MPs and peers. Details of such claims will not be required to be disclosed, but only annual totals.
If approved, this Order will have the practical effect of relieving the House of Commons and the House of Lords of their obligation to comply with a number of outstanding requests for information under the Act. Effectively, the Welsh Assembly, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Scottish Parliament will be responding to requests for information and publishing detailed breakdowns of their members’ expenses, Parliament will not.
This explains a lot, such as why requests for information are being ignored, appeals are being denied and why reviews by the Information Commissioner do not seem to be getting anywhere. The arrogance of MPs in thinking that they do not have to account for the expenditure of public money is breathtaking and yet somehow I think they are going to get away with this.
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