Since the General Election in May, the way in which MPs’ expenses are administered has changed. Under the ‘old’ system MPs used to submit claims directly to the Houses of Parliament which were then paid directly to the supplier. The system was not very transparent and sometimes MPs claimed for items that did not support them in their work representing their communities. I was always confident that I only claimed what was necessary for me to fulfil my responsibilities as a local MP. Last year I put together a page detailing my claims from 2004 – 2010. You can view this page here.

After the expenses scandal in 2009, action needed to be taken to ‘clean up’ politics. The Parliamentary Standards Act (2009) received cross party support and aimed to make a fairer and more transparent system that the public could have real trust in. A new body, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), was formed. IPSA monitors and administers the expenses scheme for MPs, and is responsible for paying their salaries and those of their staff. IPSA is independent of Parliament, Government and political parties. For more information about IPSA, or to read the Expenses Rules in full, please click here.

IPSA plans to publish MPs’ expenses on its website in due course, along with any refused claims that they deem not to be appropriate. On this page, I will post my claims as at the end of every month, so you can see exactly what I have claimed for:

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011 

June 2011

July 2011