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Adjournment debate on Wednesday, 16 June 2010, in the House of Commons, led by David Winnick. The answering member was Lord Harper.

Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority

Westminster Hall adjournment debate on the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
511 c137-60WH 
Session
2010-12
Department
Cabinet Office
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Proceeding contributions
Lord Harper | 511 c160WH (Link to this contribution) It is not for a member of the Government to tell the Standards and Privileges Committee—when it is s...
John Stanley | 511 c160WH (Link to this contribution) Before my hon. Friend sits down, will he answer the fundamental question that I put to him? Does he ...
Show all contributions (103)
Lord Harper | 511 c159WH (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Lady makes a good point. Under the old system, with which Members of the old Parliame...
Lord Harper | 511 c159-60WH (Link to this contribution) I will not take any more interventions. I have only four minutes. The shadow Secretary of State, wh...
Lord Harper | 511 c158WH (Link to this contribution) If my hon. Friend will let me get to the end of my list, he may hear some positive news. To pick up ...
Lord Harper | 511 c158WH (Link to this contribution) I will give way once more, but then I need to make some progress.
Richard Bacon | 511 c158WH (Link to this contribution) If it is a bad system, it will be like the Rural Payments Agency, which finally sent people to meet ...
Lord Harper | 511 c158WH (Link to this contribution) Let me make some progress. The fact that there are some 47 Members in Westminster Hall today—the lar...
Lord Harper | 511 c157-8WH (Link to this contribution) I do not have a great deal of time. I will try to address as many of the issues raised by right hon....
Jack Straw | 511 c157WH (Link to this contribution) No, I have no time. I hope that all members of the board of IPSA have sought to register themselves...
Ian Jnr Paisley | 511 c157WH (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Jack Straw | 511 c156-7WH (Link to this contribution) I have only two minutes left. So far as the structure of the allowance system is concerned, my view...
Lord Beamish | 511 c146WH (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that the problem with the so-called induction system or briefing ses...
Ann Clwyd | 511 c146WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The comments made by other Members show that we have all shared ...
Ann Clwyd | 511 c146WH (Link to this contribution) I agree; and, by the way, I want to say to the press that we are not whingeing MPs. I object to that...
Lord Hanson of Flint | 511 c146WH (Link to this contribution) We have an online computer system, but I also submit every receipt in writing and must establish my ...
Ann Clwyd | 511 c145-6WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall North (Mr Winnick) on bravely initiating the de...
John Stanley | 511 c145WH (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Lady for making that important point. No one can say with certainty at th...
Helen Goodman | 511 c145WH (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman makes a fascinating and pertinent point. Is he aware that some of our colle...
John Stanley | 511 c143-5WH (Link to this contribution) I wish to declare an interest as one of the many Members of Parliament who have been deemed to be a ...
David Winnick | 511 c143WH (Link to this contribution) That is a good point. I spoke about the compliance expenses officer, who is supposed to be an indepe...
Speaker | 511 c143WH (Link to this contribution) Order. I draw Members' attention to the fact that I will start the winding-up speeches at 10.40 am. ...
Joan Walley | 511 c142WH (Link to this contribution) May I just go back to my hon. Friend's point about communication officers? Does he agree that the re...
David Winnick | 511 c142WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend could not have set out better the effect on family life. We could go back to the situ...
Adrian Bailey | 511 c142-3WH (Link to this contribution) Last week, I received a letter telling me that I had not submitted my bank details to IPSA so that I...
David Winnick | 511 c142WH (Link to this contribution) I mentioned how difficult it is to get in touch with IPSA, apart from with its interns, who I would ...
David Winnick | 511 c142WH (Link to this contribution) I totally agree. I mentioned IPSA's chair and interim chief executive. A communications director is...
Helen Goodman | 511 c142WH (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a serious impact on Members' families as well as an effect o...
Ian Mearns | 511 c151WH (Link to this contribution) I am an MP for a new constituency following a boundary change. It would plainly have been the wrong ...
Baroness Keeley | 511 c150-1WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a very good point. My hon. Friend the Member for Walsall North referred to new ...
Helen Goodman | 511 c150WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is even more absurd to put things over which no one has any f...
Jim Sheridan | 511 c151-2WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall North (Mr Winnick) on securing this debate. In ...
Speaker | 511 c151WH (Link to this contribution) We have 10 minutes left, and three Members are trying to catch my eye. I leave it for Members to dec...
Baroness Keeley | 511 c151WH (Link to this contribution) That is a well made point. I am short of time, so I want to end my remarks on that aspect by saying...
Baroness Keeley | 511 c149-50WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr McCrea. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Memb...
Bob Russell | 511 c148-9WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the right hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Sir John Stanley) on raising the rea...
Ann Clwyd | 511 c147WH (Link to this contribution) I totally agree with my hon. Friend. I hope that we allow enough time for the poor man who has to an...
David Winnick | 511 c147WH (Link to this contribution) The reply to the questions I tabled to the Leader of the House was that no responsibility falls on t...
Ann Clwyd | 511 c148WH (Link to this contribution) It is all ridiculous. We must have answers today, because we are not going to put up with it. Of cou...
Brian H Donohoe | 511 c147WH (Link to this contribution) Is my right hon. Friend aware that we cannot talk to IPSA but have to speak to an agency in Manchest...
Ann Clwyd | 511 c148WH (Link to this contribution) That is yet more evidence that IPSA is not working. I have been trying to finish my speech, Dr McCr...
David Simpson | 511 c148WH (Link to this contribution) Further to what the right hon. Lady said about information being given in different regions, an info...
Richard Bacon | 511 c147WH (Link to this contribution) As with the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones), the young man who came to explain the system to...
Jim McGovern | 511 c154WH (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Bob Russell | 511 c154WH (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman please confirm that the public anger during the last year was directed...
Jim Sheridan | 511 c155WH (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Jack Straw | 511 c155WH (Link to this contribution) If my hon. Friend will allow me, no, I will not give way. We brought forward what became the Parliam...
Jack Straw | 511 c155WH (Link to this contribution) Of course I accept that point. The truth of the matter was—we know this—that quite a number of our f...
Jack Straw | 511 c154WH (Link to this contribution) This will be the last intervention that I take.
Jim McGovern | 511 c154-5WH (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way. When he mentions the "outrageous conduct" of M...
Jonathan Edwards | 511 c152WH (Link to this contribution) As a new Member, I inherited the staffing structure of my predecessor. He and I and our constituents...
Jim Sheridan | 511 c152WH (Link to this contribution) That is grossly unfair. The worrying aspect is that the hon. Gentleman may even be taken to an indus...
Richard Bacon | 511 c152-3WH (Link to this contribution) I strongly endorse the point made by the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Jim Sherida...
Jack Straw | 511 c154WH (Link to this contribution) From what I have seen, IPSA itself recognises that there are a number of anomalies in the system—alt...
Emily Thornberry | 511 c153WH (Link to this contribution) I promise to be extremely brief. I appreciate that many Members do not have a great deal of sympathy...
Jack Straw | 511 c153-4WH (Link to this contribution) I express my gratitude to my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall North (Mr Winnick) for raising this ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 511 c154WH (Link to this contribution) I want to raise one issue that probably has not been mentioned yet. We are talking about value for m...
Jack Straw | 511 c156WH (Link to this contribution) No. I am just putting on the record—[Interruption.]
Jack Straw | 511 c156WH (Link to this contribution) I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Jim Sheridan).
Jim Sheridan | 511 c156WH (Link to this contribution) If my right hon. Friend had known then what he knows now, would he have done anything different?
Jack Straw | 511 c156WH (Link to this contribution) I am just putting on the record what Parliament itself agreed. We then had to get an interim chief e...
Jack Straw | 511 c156WH (Link to this contribution) No. If we are going to have an independent authority, we have got to give it some independence. The...
Jack Straw | 511 c156WH (Link to this contribution) My view is that the basic structure of the Act is probably satisfactory, and I have heard no suggest...
Brian H Donohoe | 511 c155WH (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Jack Straw | 511 c155WH (Link to this contribution) No. We could no longer continue with a system of allowances whereby we set the allowances ourselves....
Jack Straw | 511 c155WH (Link to this contribution) No, I am afraid I cannot, as my time is very limited. I just remind the House that we had to set up...
Richard Bacon | 511 c155WH (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Jack Straw | 511 c156WH (Link to this contribution) No, I am afraid that I need to make very quick progress.
Bob Russell | 511 c156WH (Link to this contribution) You are defending the indefensible.
David Winnick | 511 c140WH (Link to this contribution) I would like to have the response of the chair of IPSA to my hon. Friend's very important point abou...
David Winnick | 511 c140WH (Link to this contribution) I will give way to my hon. Friend, who does not usually like to get involved in controversy.
Speaker | 511 c141WH (Link to this contribution) Order. Interventions will have to be interventions, not speeches.
Dennis Skinner | 511 c140-1WH (Link to this contribution) I think my hon. Friend is now at the kernel of the subject: the online system. We have heard from my...
David Winnick | 511 c141WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has touched on an important question, which I mentioned earlier: why are we having th...
Emily Thornberry | 511 c139WH (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend aware that 20 central London MPs have, on a cross-party basis, signed a letter to ...
David Winnick | 511 c138-9WH (Link to this contribution) I would like to make some progress as I know that a number of colleagues wish to speak. IPSA's justi...
David Winnick | 511 c138WH (Link to this contribution) Indeed, and I shall come to that.
Lord Wilson of Sedgefield | 511 c139WH (Link to this contribution) On computers, I managed to get access to the expenses system using my own password—
David Winnick | 511 c139WH (Link to this contribution) I am sure that that is an important and interesting intervention.
David Winnick | 511 c139-40WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend's point is valid, and I hope that it will be noted by IPSA. I am not sure whether IPS...
Lord Wilson of Sedgefield | 511 c139WH (Link to this contribution) However, the expenses that appeared on the screen were those of another MP. A member of my staff man...
Russell Brown | 511 c140WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend, like those others of us who were here before the last election, will easily recognis...
Lord Beamish | 511 c137-8WH (Link to this contribution) I think that I am correct in saying that my hon. Friend was elected to this House for the first time...
David Winnick | 511 c137WH (Link to this contribution) It is pleasant to serve under your chairmanship, Dr McCrea. Let me say straight away that it is unfo...
Tom Harris | 511 c138WH (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend find it perturbing that although it is virtually impossible for Members of Parli...
David Winnick | 511 c138WH (Link to this contribution) I am not going to take up what the independent expenses compliance officer said. I do not think that...
David Winnick | 511 c138WH (Link to this contribution) I take that point entirely. If IPSA spent as much time trying to resolve the genuine difficulties of...
Brian H Donohoe | 511 c138WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate; it is a subject that I feel passionate about....
Anne McGuire | 511 c158WH (Link to this contribution) Does the Minister have any idea how much it has cost to reinvent the wheel on direct payment of offi...
Ann Clwyd | 511 c147WH (Link to this contribution) That is disgraceful. It puts unfair pressure on those people. We expect answers and if we do not get...
Jack Straw | 511 c154WH (Link to this contribution) I was going to come on to that very important point. Just to go back slightly, it is true that this...
Helen Goodman | 511 c155WH (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Angela C Smith | 511 c141WH (Link to this contribution) I put on record that I am here today only because of the inordinate amount of time that I spend on I...
Subjects
Disclosure of information Applications Administration Allowances Advisory services Administrative delays ICT Email Payments Management Members Members' staff Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
Link
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