Parliament announces Joint Working Group on Allowances Expenditure

114/2005 | 24 November 2005

On 1 November, the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) committed to a programme of disclosure for MSPs’ allowances expenditure.

Today, the SPCB is announcing the membership of the Joint Working Group which will report on options for improving the allowances system to the SPCB.

The aim of the SPCB in establishing this group is to achieve:

• better support to Members
• an improved claims process
• easier checking and reporting processes.

The SPCB will look to the Group to provide recommendations.

MSPs from across the parties will be joined by five senior Parliamentary officials to look at how reporting systems can be reformed. Corporate Body member Nora Radcliffe MSP will chair the Group and will be joined by the following MSPs:

• Robin Harper MSP
• Margo MacDonald MSP (updated 13/12/2005)
• Derek Brownlee MSP
• Alasdair Morgan MSP
• Margaret Smith MSP
• Labour Party representative to be confirmed: Update: Cathy Peattie MSP
• Rosemary Byrne.MSP

Specifically, the group will look at:

• what changes can be made to the claims process, in particular whether greater use can be made of electronic systems.

• what changes can be made to improve the claims process with regard to the adequacy or otherwise of the information gathered from Members.

• whether the communications, advice and guidance prepared for MSPs for submitting claims are adequate.

The full remit of the group can be seen on the Parliament’s website at

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/spcb/minutes/papers-05/1108_Paper110.pdf

The Presiding Officer George Reid said:

“The Joint Working Group will be looking at serious issues including respecting the confidentiality of constituents. Currently MSPs are expected to give, on travel claims, information on places visited. This has been an issue recently on taxi claims. Street names and numbers, if disclosed, would identify a constituent’s home and therefore the fact that the MSP has been asked for assistance. We have a duty to respect the confidentiality of that constituent. Moreover if the issue involved advice or help on, for example, anti social neighbours the disclosure of an address in the name of openness could have serious consequences.

“We have to balance accountability for our expenses claims and our audit requirements on one hand, with the right to privacy our constituents are entitled to expect on the other. We must also avoid creating a very bureaucratic system. The Joint Working Group will consider whether we have this balance right.”

Nora Radcliffe MSP said:

“As we acknowledged when we announced we were moving to fuller disclosure of MSP allowances, there are issues around personal security, bank details and third parties that need to be addressed.

“The Joint Working Group announced today is essential to the process of moving forward. Any new system must be both open and workable. Bringing together MSPs and parliamentary officials to find solutions to these issues is a vital step in this process.”

New ways of publishing information

2004 / 2005

The Presiding Officer’s letter of 1 November advised that officials had been asked to produce a plan on how to publish the information on allowances from 1999 to end of March 2005.

As part of this, the SPCB committed to publishing in December 2005, the usual time for annual publication of allowances information, a substantially increased level of detail in relation to MSPs’ allowances expenditure for 2004/05.

The new format will breakdown the headline categories so that it is possible to see how amounts have been claimed, whether that is monthly, or weekly, or how ever the MSP has claimed.

2005 / 2006

At around the end of January 2006, the Parliament will build on the increased level of information available by additionally publishing supporting supplementary documentation on allowances expenditure for the first two quarters of 2005/06.

This will involve the electronic scanning and processing of claim forms, invoices and receipts. Preparing the data in this way is expected to be costly.

Historic data

Consideration is being given to processing historic data. Officials have been asked to come forward with firm, costed proposals for the various options and a possible charging regime. It is not possible at this stage to be definite about the costs as there are a number of variables depending on how the staffing and electronic enhancements are implemented.

Background

Text of the Presiding Officer’s letter to MSPs on 1 November, links to the SPCB minutes and associated papers where Allowances was discussed (8 and 16 November) can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/spcb/publications/index.htm and

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/spcb/minutes/index.htm

It is envisaged that the Joint Working Group will meet fortnightly until the end of January 2006, with the prospect of meeting up on a monthly basis until summer recess 2006 if necessary.

The Scottish Parliament has been guided by openness and accountability with these concepts forming part of the founding principles of the Parliament. Legislation on Freedom of Information was passed by the Scottish Parliament in April 2002, with the SPCB putting into place an extensive publication scheme to assist people in accessing information already publicly available as well as a disclosure log to help access information made available under the FOI legislation.

Since 1st January 2005 parliamentary staff have received 315 freedom of information requests. The biggest single category (33%) has related to MSPs’ allowances, resulting in 1044.5 hours of work by the Parliament’s Allowances team in dealing with the requests.

Information on allowances is currently published on an annual basis. Details of 2003 / 2004 can be found here:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-04/pa04-077.htm

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