The next round of the MPs expenses crisis

By William Green on Nov 5, 09 11:40 AM

Now the Kelly report on MPs expenses has been published, attention will switch to the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa).

MPs were outraged yesterday when it emerged Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy will be paid up to £100,000 a year for two or three days work a week - around £30,000 more than backbenchers.

This is what senior MP Sir Alan Beith, Lib Dem MP for Berwick, said to me: "The logical thing to do would have been to link his pay to the same as MPs. That would have been the sensible thing to do.

"He would have extra moral authority because he was on the same terms and that would be pro-rata."

Ipsa members will work for around two or three days work a month for a nice bit of lolly.

"The remuneration for the position is £400 per diem plus reimbursement of reasonable travel and subsistence costs related to IPSA business. All travel and subsistence costs will be published on a rolling basis, and made publicly available," is what the Ipsa website says.

Details of the expenses regime will be released on Monday.

I have also found concerns about who is going to work for the new body. It is replacing the Commons fees office, which has overseen the discredited expenses system.

An implementation panel has been established to help Ipsa get set up. It met at the end of last month, with Ipsa interim chief executive warning a "strong management culture" was vital to deal with "legacy issues".

The minutes also show Dr Ruth Fox, from the Hansard Society, "queried the arrangements for the transfer of some staff to IPSA and the sensitive nature of this given the desire to develop a strong management culture which was clearly different to that in place under the old system.

"Andrew McDonald replied that some staff would be moving over to IPSA, but we were not yet in a position to indicate how many."

Click here to go to the minutes.

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