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Members' Salaries, Pensions and Allowances

I am very grateful to the right hon. and learned Lady, who has been exceptionally courteous. If we on the Members Estimate Committee can be trusted with the enormous task of sorting out some of the allowances anomalies identified in Sir John Baker's report, why can we not be given—legally, or with the approval of the House—the official task of coming forward with proposals on pay and linkage? I do not mean a full-scale review. We could use the experts at the House of Commons Library and the Fees Office, and the director of resources, and we could get a lot of input from colleagues. Given that we are trusted to sort out the allowances, why can we not make such proposals?