Parliamentary Standards Bill

The hon. Member for Nottingham, North (Mr. Allen) made some significant points, many of which arise in the context of clause 8. Of course, many go much further, too. In our debates, we keep coming up against the "there's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza" syndrome. We claim that we want to create an independent parliamentary standards authority, yet, at every turn, we assert the sovereignty of Parliament and say that there must be a dual control brake on anything that IPSA or an investigator might do. We need to get real. The public feel little about the sovereignty of Parliament, which we value and discuss here, but are very angry about the avarice of parliamentarians, as they perceive it and as has been represented over past months. People want to know that we will allow any independent standards authority that we create to be independent. Yes, we should ensure that there cannot be excesses and that there are limits. We must also ensure protection for Members' rights and reputations, individually and collectively. Several sensible amendments have been tabled about that, and some are in the group that we are considering.