MPs' Expenses

[5 Forward 6 Back]

MPs to escape expenses investigations after paperwork destroyed by Parliament. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/11204405/MPs-to-escape-expenses-investigations-after-paperwork-destroyed-by-Parliament.html)

I find JPA's expenses system as annoying as most, as someone who travels maybe 6 times a year to other parts of the world with work. The most irksome part, to me, is having to retain evidence and indeed some sort of accurate memory of every single claim dating back 6 years, in case the audit spectre appears and demands to know what I had for lunch on that posting journey in December 2008.

Turns out that if you're an MP, data protection rules state that all information pertaining to your claim has to be destroyed after 3 years.

Under the House of Commons "Authorised Records Disposal Practice, which is overseen by Mr Bercow’s committee, records of MPs’ expenses claims are destroyed after three years. The move is necessary to comply with data protection laws, a Commons spokesman said.

So does this mean if I'm ever the target of an audit for 4-6 years ago, I can write to my MP asking why records of this claim have even been kept, breaking DP laws? Has anyone been subject to an audit like this?

Outrage over their conveniently-lost paperwork seems much worse when they cite a reason that directly affects our own system.

[vascodegama]

Why don't you write to the data protection people and ask why the anomaly exists? If you then find out that the JPA system is illegal you could always report the individual who dreamt the idea up to the DPA for possible prosecution.

[Biggus]

I thought any financial records had to be kept for 7 years for tax purposes (I'm sure anyone who is self employed and visits this site could quickly verify/deny this).

If the tax man can go back up to 7 years......

[dallas]

MPs in shock exclusion from the rules the rest of us have to live under? I find that hard to believe...:hmm:

[Pontius Navigator]

IIRC, the civil service rules for MoD was 3 years with an agreement that if HMRC challenged, and won, any actuals claim then the CS and not the employee would pick up the tab.

Subsistence claims were actuals, not capped, and included a half bottle of wine with dinner.

Who writes such restrictive Service rules?

[Jimlad1]

PN - CS rules are far more stringent these days - cap across Defence for hotel bookings applies equally, and I believe the days of 1/2 bottle of wine died a long time ago. There is also a limit now on spend, which is fairly unrealistic to put it mildly!

[Avtur]

I always wondered how much it actually costs the MoD to audit that 28 pounds per day allowance (or whatever it is now): There were two full-time JPA audit clerks (that I knew of) at my last base, who had to trawl through thousands of receipts to confirm that the day's allowance had been spent within the rules. It would be interesting to see how much those individuals "saved" the tax payer per anum in recovering "incorrectly" spent monies, versus the cost of their annual salaries.

[tucumseh]

I believe the days of 1/2 bottle of wine died a long time ago. There is also a limit now on spend, which is fairly unrealistic to put it mildly!

I have a sneaking suspicion I know what event forced the change.

An Army IPT at AbbeyWood had a very small project team who needed to host a bidders' conference. Only half a dozen needed to go (3 Army, 3 CS), plus reps from the 3 bidders. It was scheduled for 4 hours max in an ABW conference room.

The IPT's Commercial Manager insisted that the whole IPT attend and it be at an Army base in Wiltshire. Even so, 4 hours max so no overnighters needed. It was less than a 2 hour drive.

They block booked 2 hotels and the entire team was on a 3 line whip to attend an IPT "dinner" the evening before.

Most retired early. The rest, led by the Finance Manager, stayed and worked their way through the wine list on the MoD credit card. Their theory was that if there were 60 or so on expenses, that meant 30 bottles, whoever drank it. This was shared between 4 or 5 and they were found blotto the next morning when the cleaners arrived at 0500. They had no interest in the conference, so went to bed and didn't attend. The IPT leader (senior Army officer) signed the chit.

[4everAD]

And it's thanks to people like that that that I had to spend over an hour justifying why I claimed the mileage to go and get a mandated EHIC card for a deployment. It was a total claim of £9 but you'd have thought I was trying to defraud the MOD of its annual budget.

[smujsmith]

5Forward6Back,

When they "destroyed" the evidence in parliament, they must have forgotten that the "Torygraph" has the whole lot on DVD? I'm sure they will be willing to help HMRC with any missing records, and also refresh our memories through their publication, of the egregious selfishness of the political Numpties currently occupying our parliament. Of course, I'm sure that HMRC have already been banjaxed by LibLabCon on using the real material.

Smudge:ok:

[Stendec5]

Didn't Cromwell sum these bastards up perfectly when he dismissed parliament by force..."SCUM."

Has anything changed?