Parliament passes expenses legislation
Wednesday, 22 July 2009 12:00 AM
By Alex Stevenson
Legislation imposing an external watchdog on MPs' expenses completed its rushed journey through parliament yesterday.
The Parliamentary Standards Act received royal assent hours before the long summer recess began.
It includes provisions for the creation of an Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and makes it a criminal offence to submit a false expenses claim.
Future MPs found guilty of such a crime could find themselves behind bars for up to a year.
The bill's passage through parliament did not receive cross-party support, however. Many felt the government should have waited for Sir Christopher Kelly's root-and-branch review of parliamentary allowances before acting.
Key measures in the government's original proposals also had to be abandoned because of constitutional concerns. A legally binding code of conduct was also dropped. And paid advocacy and failing to register financial interests, which could have been made criminal offences, are not.
Justice secretary Jack Straw remained defiant as the bill drew to a close, despite later admitting the experience was one of his most difficult in parliament.
"I am not apologetic about the fact that the bill has been changed on its way through the House," he told the Commons.
"That has been the essence of the parliamentary process both here and in the other place. I would rightly have stood condemned had I sought to resist a series of changes that were urged on us as we pooled our collective wisdom from all sides of the House, at both ends of the building, to achieve a better bill."
Conservative spokesman Bill Cash said the bill's passage had been a "shabby affair", however.
Shadow leader of the House Alan Duncan said the government had been panicked into producing a rushed piece of legislation.
And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called it a "fig leaf", saying it would not cover up Britain's "rotten" political system.
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