Press Releases

A former Head of the Fees Office has criticised the paying of MPs' expenses under the controversial additional costs allowance.

BBC Radio 4's The Report has spoken, for the first time, to former employees within the House of Commons Fees Office to reveal how the allowances system developed and how the Fees Office has worked, over the years, with MPs.

The former Fees Office head, who does not want to be named, told reporter Simon Cox that with the 2003 changes to Commons sitting hours the "raison d'etre for the Additional Costs Allowance disappeared" but that no government was going to propose halving the allowance "because that would mean taking money away."

The former official also said that when he heard about the benchmark of the John Lewis list he "laughed" and that it seemed to him that "you're giving carte blanche to go to John Lewis and get whatever it is at what price."

He said the claims revealed in recent weeks would never have got past his team with their rules.

"If it was personal or private or party or political then it wasn't parliamentary, now I've looked at the papers and the reports and just sat here laughing."

Michael Barram, a former House of Commons Head of Finance who spent a decade processing members' claims, also spoke to the programme.

He said: "It was a very informal relationship, you would have met MPs in bars or over a cigarette on the terrace [and] you would tend to work through problems in the family context, there was an organisational ethos that kept the thing under control."

A third source close to the current Fees Office told the BBC programme about the culture of the office referred to as the "tea room chain". He said that every time the Fees Office made a decision in any way different or advantageous, the MP would tell his friends who would tell theirs, and soon there would be what the source called "a gold rush".

He recalled one member who, in the early days of video cameras, claimed for one arguing it was for his parliamentary duties. The next week, the neighbouring MP also claimed for one.

The Report was broadcast on Radio 4 on Thursday 28 May 2009 at 8.00pm. It is repeated on Sunday 31 May at 9.30pm.

Notes to Editors

Any use of information from this release must be attributed to The Report on BBC Radio 4

PH