Expenses list blacked out
Thursday 18th June 2009, 11:20AM BST.
Details of MPs’ expenses were finally released by the House of Commons today – but with key details blacked out.
Hundreds of thousands of pages of heavily censored claim forms and receipts dating back to 2004 have been published on the Parliament website.
These include claims under the £24,000-a-year Additional Costs Allowance, which reimburses MPs for the cost of having to maintain a second home; the £22,000 Incidental Expenses Provision, which pays for running an office; and the £10,400 Communications Allowance, which covers the cost of newsletters and websites to inform constituents; as well as details of expenditure on stationery and postage.
Shropshire MPs’ claims – click here
Their release comes more than a year after the High Court ordered their publication after initial demands under Freedom of Information laws in January 2005 were rejected by MPs and the Commons authorities.
The edited 2004 to 2008 expenses for the second home allowances of Parliament’s 646 MPs block out the names of the shops where goods were bought and the correspondence between the MPs and the fees office – but still disclose details of any home improvements, furniture, expenditure on luxury items and gardening work.
Confidential details such as addresses and bank information have also been removed on privacy and security grounds.
However, their removal makes it virtually impossible to identify some of the most serious abuses of house “flipping” to avoid the payment of capital gains tax – revealed by the Daily Telegraph which had access to uncensored expenses claims.
Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Vince Cable said the detail released officially was “compromised”.
He said: “The compromise which has emerged is some personal data relating to addresses has been suppressed and had that information not been made available they would never have been able to identify the flipping of homes and the avoidance of Capital Gains Tax. It is compromised and therefore less effective than it should be.”
Last night it emerged Treasury minister Kitty Ussher switched the designation of her constituency home to avoid paying £17,000 capital gains tax.
She resigned from her position saying she had done nothing wrong.
By London Reporter Sunita Patel
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So its a complete waste of time electricity and pixels. Democracy in action.
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And there was Gordon Brown, a couple of weeks ago when he was fighting for survival, saying how his father always told him to “be honest”.
But don’t expect David Cameron to be any more open when it comes to this sort of thing. Because when it comes to the nitty gritty of sorting out issues like this, all MPs – of whatever political persuasion – will all band together and look after ‘number one’ – which is themselves, of course.
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I’ve worked out that Mark Pritchard paid out £908 in taxis for the year 2007/8. So much for getting on his bike…
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Good to see that Mr & Mrs Kawcynski will be sleeping soundly in their new flat with their new £400 Stuart Jones leather headboard!! – Not to mention their £250 per month general expenses + mortgage payments, food bills, oh and their other expenses (did some one mention snouts in the trough!!) ITS BEYOND A JOKE! Im not bothered to look at the other local MP’s feeding frenzy
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The country is currupt at the top.
The very people we are supposed to trust, MP’s, Bankers. Senior Police Officers etc are rotten to the core but what can you do about it?
People will say vote them out but what is the alternative?
The smug Cameron?
His party are EXACTLY the same, rotten to the core.
In Spain there are currupt MP’s but at least they are being charged, and if found guilty, jailed for long periods and their assets seized.
Why doesn’t it happen in the UK?
Because they are all in the same boat.
They will all get their gold plated pensions and YOU will pay for it.
What is the answer?
I am afraid I don’t know so I got out.
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I wished I was young enough – I’f Join English Exile. (#5)
Just WHAT is the point of publishing data like this, and then blanking huge chunks of it out?
Just like the proposed enquiry into the Iraq war.
The ONLY reason for blanking things out is so you can’t see it (obvious I know – but it has to be said!) – and the reason you can’t / not being allowed to see it ? ….. is becuase there’s something to HIDE!
What a wonderful, honest and trustworthy lot we have running this country!!
And what REALLY makes my blood boil is the adverts being screened RIGHT NOW about benefit cheats …
“we are on to you, secret cameras, likely jail sentence etc etc” ..
So THAT’S how WE get treated if we misuse the system and claim for things we shouldn’t,
BUT …
IF you’re an MP – well, that’s OK then, and even better, we’ll cover it up for you!!!
HONESTLY – HOW can ANYONE say that this country is being governed properly and fairly??
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It’s not the government’s fault, and it’s not the system’s. It’s ALL the MPs who have put in ridiculous claims thinking we would never find out. Vote them out at the next election.
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What ever happened to those Commando Units that scoured the Nations Building sites in search of those knaves of workers who were cheating the system by working on “The Lump”! .. it would seem that the Realm is in urgent need of those stalwart Battalions again! .. only this time the problem is so much bigger! ..
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…and if Mrs Pritchard wants a £30 chair cushion for a bad back, then she should pay for it!
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i’d just like to say that the whole government can ***** and put the ***** in a ***** with a ***** sideways.
signed *******
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thankfully no party escapes unscathed, so a plague on all their houses. time for a fresh start with say frank field or anne widecombe as speaker ruling the commons with a vicious whip. all the malfeasors should be gone by july next year or else.
now then where can i claim for my tortoise shelter????????????
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Just to point out, nothing that has been released proves that they are corrupt. They have played by the rules, its the rules that are wrong !.. Im sure if we are honest, most of us would claim for what we could if we were in their position !
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Blimey, atcham jack, now you are really talking, just imagine Anne Widecombe as Speaker with a “vicious whip”. No wig and Gown for her – nothing but the best shiny leather and rubber, with a studded dog collar and spiked finger nails, not sitting demurely in the Speakers Chair mind, oh! no, in keeping with her dominating appearance she would have to prance up and down the table giving an occasional flip of the whip at the recalcitrant MPs who incurred her wrath.
We would even be able to tell those MPs who we should raise an eyebrow at as no doubt those that way inclined, would be fighting for seats on the front benches.
The Commons would be a bigger joke and laugh than what it is now. Certainly it couldn’t be held in any greater contempt because it has already sunk to the pits.
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confuesd said:
“Just to point out, nothing that has been released proves that they are corrupt. They have played by the rules, its the rules that are wrong !.. Im sure if we are honest, most of us would claim for what we could if we were in their position !”
You are “confused” – you’ve missed the one crucial difference between them and us – they MAKE the rules that you say they have played by. In any case, it’s already been shown that many of them have broken the rules that they themselves made. Claiming mortgage interest on properties that weren’t subject to a mortgage – receiving payment twice for the same item – by submitting the quote and the invoice?
If most of us were found to have carried on like this we’d be convicted of fraud – MPs should be treated in exactly the same way
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sack these leeches NOW
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