Misc: One News Page Alert: MPs who refuse to repay expenses could have sala..

One News Page Alert: MPs who refuse to repay expenses could have sala..

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MPs who refuse to repay expenses could have salary docked
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MPs to vote on plan to give Commons authorities power to recoup money
from any MP who fails to comply with Sir Thomas Legg's requests to pay
back unjustified claimsMPs will be asked to vote on a proposal to give
the Commons authorities the power to dock the salaries of members who
refused to repay unjustified expense claims, it was revealed today.The
vote will take place after the Commons publishes the report from Sir
Thomas Legg in the new year Ã¢Â€Â" later than expected Ã¢Â€Â" saying which
MPs have refused to cooperate with his demands for money to be
repaid.The announcement came from the members estimate committee
(MEC), a Commons committee chaired by the Speaker, John Bercow, which
also revealed that MPs will be given the right to appeal to a former
judge if they do not accept Legg's findings.There have been claims
that up to 50 MPs are refusing to accept Legg's requests that they
repay money.Legg, a retired civil servant, was appointed to review the
claims made by all MPs after the expenses controversy erupted earlier
this year. He has decided that some payments that were authorised by
the Commons authorities at the time cannot be justified in retrospect,
and in October he wrote to all MPs saying whether or not they should
repay money.MPs were given the chance to say whether they thought the
requests were unfair and now Legg is in the process of sending out
final demands to all MPs.Originally it was expected that a report
containing Legg's conclusions would be published in December.But the
MEC has decided to give any MPs unhappy about the Legg conclusions a
final right of appeal to Sir Paul Kennedy, a retired judge who also
serves as the interception of communications commissioner. Kennedy
will decide whether the Legg requests are fair and equitable and the
MEC will publish Kennedy's findings alongside the Legg report in early
2010.The Commons will then be asked to pass a resolution giving the
parliamentary authorities the power to recoup money from any MP
required to pay up by Legg and Kennedy. The payments could be deducted
from salary or from future allowance payments.The MEC, which met
yesterday, said in a statement: The MEC expects that members will
voluntarily repay any sums found to have been overclaimed but it will
propose that, if necessary, the money be recovered by setting off sums
owed against future payments of allowances and/or salary.Before this
happens, however, the committee believes MPs should be given an
opportunity to show in an independent process any special reasons why
it would not be fair or equitable in their particular case to require
them to make the repayments.This process is designed to reflect the
opportunity an individual would have in legal proceedings to show why
he or she should not be required to make restitution.That opportunity
is not available to members in this case because of parliamentary
privilege.Kennedy will only consider written evidence and will not
hear appeals from MPs in person. MPs will have to submit their
evidence to him by 21 December if they want him to consider their
case.The MEC also announced that it will publish details of MPs'
expense claims for 2008-09 and for the first quarter of 2009-10 on the
Commons website next Thursday.The last time parliament published
expenses details online there were furious protests about the amount
of information blacked out, but this time the Commons authorities say
that redaction will be much lighter and that more information about
individual expense claims will be revealed.