Parliamentary Standards Bill

Amendment 36 seeks to change the timescale on which IPSA would review the MPs’ code of conduct relating to financial interests from "regularly" to "from time to time". However, as presently drafted, the frequency and depth of review of the code is open to reasonable interpretation. To change the wording to "from time to time" would not necessarily make reviews less frequent, but would just remove the literal requirement that they be regular. A regular review if the system appeared to be operating satisfactorily, however, would not necessarily be onerous or require changes to be made to the system. I also suggest that it is important that the reviews are carried out regularly. "From time to time" seems to have a slightly ad hoc quality about it—perhaps something rather random. "Regularly", on the other hand, implies that IPSA should have a scheme for review of the code and should plan to review it at regular intervals. It is for IPSA to decide how often the code is reviewed. I would therefore ask the noble Baroness to withdraw that amendment. I turn now to Amendment 37, which seeks to ensure that any subsequent committee established to replace the Committee on Standards and Privileges is consulted when IPSA reviews the MPs’ code of conduct relating to financial interests. However, Clause 10(2) of the Bill already makes arrangements for the interpretation of changes to names and/or functions of those committees referred to in the Bill. Clause 10 therefore already ensures that any successor committee would be consulted. I therefore deem this amendment to be unnecessary. Amendment 39 seeks to clarify that specified information about specified financial interests—the MPs’ code of conduct relating to financial interests would require MPs to enter this in the IPSA-maintained register—must be information which is specified in the code. The Government recognise that it is important—especially when a failure to follow the rules set out in the code could result in a criminal charge—that MPs are clear what they need to comply with. That is why the clause as drafted makes it very clear that the code must be specific about what it describes both in relation to the registration of interests and the rules on paid advocacy. This is the case. Indeed, other amendments before us today consider that we use the word "specified" too frequently in the clause. But the wording of Clause 5(7) is perfectly clear. It states: ""The code must require members to register specified information about specified financial interests"." The requirement is already that matters be specified in the code. As regards the amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Cope, it is important that MPs can be clear what is meant by "paid advocacy". Breach of the rules on paid advocacy has always been taken extremely seriously by both Houses. Although there is no longer to be an offence of breaching the paid advocacy rules, it is still something that deserves to be spelt out in detail. In fact, the other place insisted on putting additional references to specified benefits in kind so as to make clear that they had to be spelt out in the rules. As the other place has looked at this clause and amended it in the opposite direction to that which the noble Lord now suggests, I urge the Committee to leave it to the other place to decide how precisely it wants to have a set of rules which applies to it only to be spelt out. Finally, Amendment 41—I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours for his advice—seeks to widen the scope of the term "family" or to clarify it. However, "family" in this context would be given its ordinary meaning and would already include the Member’s spouse, civil partner and partner. By specifying the inclusion of the relationships of spouse, civil partner and partner, the amendment might more narrowly define the family. If the clause were amended in this way, specifying some relationships and not others, it would be possible to conclude that those relationships not referred to must not have been intended to be included in the definition of "family". I therefore urge the Committee to respect the definition of "family" as set out by my noble friend in the code of conduct. I urge the noble Baroness to withdraw the amendment.