Downing Street Says » Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Sir George Young’s comments about the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said that Sir George Young was acting in a particular capacity. As he said in his evidence, he was a responding as a statutory consultee under Section 5 of the Parliamentary Standards Act, which set out that IPSA was obliged to consult the Leader of the House of Commons (as the person who reflected the views of the House). The evidence he published today reflected the views of MPs from all sides of the House.

The PMS went on to say that the Prime Minister had said in the past that he didn’t think that the current system was working. IPSA was costing 6million a year to administer the expenses of 650 people, which was clearly expensive. There had been lots of problems and the Prime Minister felt that they needed to be sorted out, and he thought it was right that Sir George Young had gone through the process of collecting the views of MPs.

Put that the Prime Minister had said that there needed to be changes at IPSA by 1 April this year, the PMS said that the deadline had been set by the House: the consultation from IPSA was in response to MP’s view.

Put that Sir George Young’s report was strongly worded, the PMS said that Sir George Young set out the principles that applied. He continued to support the principles of independent regulation and transparency, and was clear that there should be no going back to a system that failed to meet the three tests of building public confidence, establishing greater transparency, and ensuring value for money. He also said that the system should continue to be subjected to rigorous and independent scrutiny, including scrutiny by the public.

The system at the moment was bureaucratic and cost a lot of money, and these problems needed to be addressed. It was important to remember that when IPSA was set up it was done so quite rapidly following the expenses scandal.

Put that Sir George Young went even further than that by saying that IPSA was failing in every sense of the three tests mentioned, the PMS said that Sir George Young did say that, and went on to say that it was distracting, and at worst impeding MPs from doing their jobs. It could also be deterring people from less affluent backgrounds from becoming MPs. These points reflected the feelings from MPs on all sides of the House.

Asked if the Prime Minister was confident that things would change, the PMS said that it was not for us to pre-empt the process. There was an IPSA consultation under way and Sir George Young had today given evidence that reflected the House’s views.

Asked if there was concern that the public could see this as the Government putting pressure on an independent body, the PMS said that the process was independent, and we supported the principle that there should be independent regulation. The system was originally set up because people had lost confidence in the previous system, and those principles of independence and scrutiny remained.

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» Thursday, February 3, 2011

Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority

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