Parliamentary Standards Bill

After that row of contributions from persons who have held high judicial office, perhaps I may turn the Committee’s attention to some more of this ragbag of small but important points that are being negotiated here. Amendment 19A seeks to delete from paragraph 18(2)(b) of Schedule 1 the words, ""(except as mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) above)"." This section of the Bill attempts to separate administrative functions and regulation functions—paragraph 18(1) defines administrative functions and paragraph 18(2) defines regulation functions—so as to distribute them between the IPSA and its staff. The last line of sub-paragraph (1) states that among the administrative functions is, ""the function of maintaining and publishing the register under section 5"." However, I cannot see that IPSA has a duty under Clause 5 to maintain the register, but it does to publish. The clause says that it has to prepare a code and goes into a lot of particulars about how it is to go about that and how the code is to be approved and so on. It also says that the code must require Members to register the information, but it does not say that IPSA has to keep the register. It is fairly obvious that it will keep the register, which is part of its whole purpose, but the drafting might have become a little confused there. It is worth another look. The next of my amendments in the group, Amendment 19D, relates to funding and how the Speaker’s committee has to review its estimate each year. Paragraph 22(4) of Schedule 1 states: ""If it is not satisfied, the Committee must make such modifications as it considers necessary to achieve consistency"." But it does not say consistency with what. Is it consistency with the previous year—accountants do like to ask, "How does that compare with the same period last year?"—or is it consistency with some other bodies or quangos, or is it consistency with something else; for example, Treasury rules? "To achieve consistency" does not seem enough. Perhaps it is internal consistency between different parts of the estimate. It is not clear with what consistency in mind the committee has to propose modifications. In fact, the provision limits the committee to making modifications which achieve consistency with something or other, but not modifications that achieve inconsistency. Perhaps that is all it needs, but the drafting is not very clear. Amendment 19E raises a very small point. The Bill states that, ""the Committee must consult the Treasury and have regard to any advice given"." I thought that "consider any advice given" might be better, but the difference in meaning is very slight and I would not press it. Amendment 20A is concerned with what the Commissioner for Parliamentary Investigations will be paid. The Bill says that terms and conditions will be determined by the Speaker. I suggest that the Speaker should not be left entirely untrammelled in this matter, but that we should insert, ""after consulting the Senior Salaries Review Board"," after "determined by the Speaker".