Parliamentary Standards Bill

I am pleased to have a nod of support from my party's Front-Bench team, and to have had one when I intervened on my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton (Alan Duncan) in the hope that I could generate support for that amendment. The Bill hands allowances to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which can then vary them without resolutions of the House. However, that alone will not restore public trust unless it is accompanied by a requirement on IPSA to ensure that allowances are subject to the maximum practicable scrutiny. That could be achieved through an amendment to clause 3, but there has not been one yet and I have not had the time to table one. If we have learned anything from the past few weeks, it is that transparency can and should do most of the heavy lifting by limiting unjustifiable claims and bolstering public confidence. A good number of the legal and constitutional flaws have already been flagged up. Clause 6 was a casualty, dead on arrival, and clause 10 looks pretty vulnerable given some of the things I have heard. Several other clauses, particularly those that create double jeopardy, might well follow.