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House of Lords: Financial Support for Members

My Lords, I am afraid that I cannot say whether the SSRB considered that or why it came to its conclusions. There is a lot in the report and my job today is to explain what is in it, not what is not in it. The SSRB report makes a series of six recommendations on Members’ travel. These relate to vouching for expenditure on travel claims, the classes of travel for which Members can be reimbursed and travel for family members. The report also makes recommendations on the publication of information about expenses held by the House and the frequency of publication. In line with the recommendations of the Eames report, it makes recommendations on the investigation of complaints relating to Members’ expenses. We have much work ahead of us, but the House Committee has taken the clear view that we must seize this opportunity to accept the principles of an external, independent review and to get on with implementing them. The ad hoc group, which is the subject of the third limb of the Motion before the House, will provide a further opportunity for Members to feed in to that implementation process before resolutions to agree a new scheme for the new Parliament are brought back to the House. Agreement to the Motion before the House today would constitute a significant step in the right direction. I beg to move.