MPs' Expenses - Payback Time
More than half of the MPs in the House of Commons (390) have been held to account for submitting inflated expenses claims - an astonishing figure.
One that confirms just what a racket the system had become - a licence for many MPs to line their pockets at public expense.
The scandal has only come to light because of dogged use of the Freedom of Information Act - along with newspapers finally flushing out the truth - notably The Telegraph.
Here's a brief summary of a report in today's paper (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/).
"MPs' expenses: 350 ordered to pay back £1m on their claims"
"More than 350 MPs have been ordered to repay over £1 million following an inquiry into their expense claims over the past five years by Sir Thomas Legg.
Sir Thomas, the head of the inquiry, will on Thursday criticise MPs for establishing a “culture of deference” to develop which allowed abuse of the system to flourish.
He will detail his findings in a report which will set out the repayments he has ordered from 350 MPs. The former mandarin, appointed in the wake of the expenses scandal, will make it clear that he thought the entire system was corrupt, according to a well-placed source.
However, the review of Commons expenses was plunged into chaos after it emerged that dozens of MPs have been allowed to dodge repayment demands.
A high-court judge appointed to hear MPs’ appeals against the Legg review findings is understood to have been sympathetic to politicians’ complaints.
Sir Paul Kennedy has told MPs he understands why they are “irritated” that Sir Thomas introduced retrospective limits on cleaning and gardening.
The limits have led to dozens of MPs, including the Prime Minister, being ordered to repay money.
The findings of the Legg review will be published alongside the results of 73 appeals heard by Sir Paul Kennedy, a retired high court judge.
The Parliamentary authorities will also release further details of MPs claims for their offices and travel over the 2008-09 financial year.
The Daily Telegraph has established that Sir Paul has allowed a substantial number of the appeals, sometimes cutting the amounts to be repaid by five-figure sums.
At least 30 of the 73 who appealed have had their repayments scrapped or reduced.
In other cases, he said that he sympathised with their arguments, but was unable to let them off because he had no power to change the terms of the review by scrapping the retrospective limits altogether.
“The Legg review is very critical of MPs behaviour and blames them, rather than the Fees Office, for allowing abuses to develop,” the source said.
“There will be a co-ordinated effort to trash Sir Thomas’s efforts. Sir Paul Kennedy has expressed sympathy for the plight of MPs but ultimately has said that the Legg team were right to impose some rules.”
One that confirms just what a racket the system had become - a licence for many MPs to line their pockets at public expense.
The scandal has only come to light because of dogged use of the Freedom of Information Act - along with newspapers finally flushing out the truth - notably The Telegraph.
Here's a brief summary of a report in today's paper (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/).
"MPs' expenses: 350 ordered to pay back £1m on their claims"
"More than 350 MPs have been ordered to repay over £1 million following an inquiry into their expense claims over the past five years by Sir Thomas Legg.
Sir Thomas, the head of the inquiry, will on Thursday criticise MPs for establishing a “culture of deference” to develop which allowed abuse of the system to flourish.
He will detail his findings in a report which will set out the repayments he has ordered from 350 MPs. The former mandarin, appointed in the wake of the expenses scandal, will make it clear that he thought the entire system was corrupt, according to a well-placed source.
However, the review of Commons expenses was plunged into chaos after it emerged that dozens of MPs have been allowed to dodge repayment demands.
A high-court judge appointed to hear MPs’ appeals against the Legg review findings is understood to have been sympathetic to politicians’ complaints.
Sir Paul Kennedy has told MPs he understands why they are “irritated” that Sir Thomas introduced retrospective limits on cleaning and gardening.
The limits have led to dozens of MPs, including the Prime Minister, being ordered to repay money.
The findings of the Legg review will be published alongside the results of 73 appeals heard by Sir Paul Kennedy, a retired high court judge.
The Parliamentary authorities will also release further details of MPs claims for their offices and travel over the 2008-09 financial year.
The Daily Telegraph has established that Sir Paul has allowed a substantial number of the appeals, sometimes cutting the amounts to be repaid by five-figure sums.
At least 30 of the 73 who appealed have had their repayments scrapped or reduced.
In other cases, he said that he sympathised with their arguments, but was unable to let them off because he had no power to change the terms of the review by scrapping the retrospective limits altogether.
“The Legg review is very critical of MPs behaviour and blames them, rather than the Fees Office, for allowing abuses to develop,” the source said.
“There will be a co-ordinated effort to trash Sir Thomas’s efforts. Sir Paul Kennedy has expressed sympathy for the plight of MPs but ultimately has said that the Legg team were right to impose some rules.”
