---

Members' Salaries, Pensions and Allowances

I respect the hon. Gentleman, as he knows, and I have been to Croydon, including south Croydon, many times. All that I am saying is that this has been the most criticised area of our allowances. To quote the report, it says that"““we are concerned that it is in the area of ACA that the greatest scope for abuse is thought to exist.””" All that I am arguing is that the matter should be looked at and reviewed. I will not give way further, as I do not want to wear colleagues' patience; I want to carry them with me. In relation to the point made by the right hon. Member for Maidenhead, the current proposal allows the Willie Hamilton election campaign grand finale to start again. At the moment, rightly or wrongly, colleagues have a final-year compensation amount when they finish their service as MPs. Under the proposal, an MP would get that payment only if their constituency was abolished or they had been defeated. So when they came to their natural retirement age, they would have to find a seat that they did not want to fight and that they absolutely hoped that they would not win—what would happen if they did would be a different question. Clearly, that is nonsense. The resettlement grant and the issue of compensation on leaving office need to be looked at. The last issue is that of offices and staff location, which was raised by the right hon. Member for Maidenhead. This is only a suggestion, but I support the idea that there should be an assessment of how much space we need—it might be 800 sq ft or it might not. Having done that, there would be a process to pay for that separately, and the costs would be different in different parts of the country. We would probably need a system in which a similar person, company or body would do that assessment in Orkney and Shetland and in London, to avoid unfair comparison. Rather than the same outcome, there should be a standard process of evaluation of what is a fair and reasonable cost. If we spend our time saying how important Parliament is, we must all assume that we are entitled to have at least one or two people working for us here as part of our job. If people ring the House of Commons and get a voice on an answerphone, that is not a satisfactory service. We cannot be in our offices when we are in the Chamber, in Committee or doing other things. We must have a system that allows MPs to have staff in the Palace of Westminster, as their base, without penalty, as well as staff in their constituency, where they are also needed. Those are important matters, and my request is that all, not some, should go for independent assessment. In relation to salaries—I end where I began—we should move down a road of an independent process, but not assume that the Government will suddenly change the habit of a lifetime, speed through, come up with a wonderful solution and leave it to us to decide without interfering. We must put in place a system that protects us next year. Consistent with public sector pay restraint, however, it should give us only a limited increase next year, as we accept a limited increase this year.