Parliamentary Standards Bill

On the last point of the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, one of the key purposes of the Bill is to address the demonstrable public concern of the past few months and to improve the confidence and trust of the public in our system of governance. However, it is also a question of improving that very system of governance. The Bill improves our system of governance by having in place a better system for the payment of allowances to Members of Parliament. The main thrust of this debate is whether or not the clause will engender a sense among the public that there are rules for them and different rules for us. MPs, as I have made clear and as noble Lords recognise, can still be prosecuted under the Fraud Act 2006 if they are clearly acting dishonestly. In that respect, MPs and members of the public are exactly the same. I, of course, agree with the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, that this is a strong Bill, not a weak Bill. We are acting from a position of strength because we are introducing a new offence for MPs which should ensure that, if there is wrongdoing, it will be properly prosecuted.