Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I do not plan to delay the Committee for long, but I think it is worth going through the genesis of the changes we are discussing this evening. When the expenses abuse revelations were at their height, the then Speaker convened a meeting of the leaders of all the parties that take up seats at Westminster: the three UK party leaders, joined by colleagues from the Northern Irish, Welsh and Scottish parties, myself included. We agreed that radical action was required. We decided that, first, there should be immediate restrictions on expenses pending a review, and a Scottish National party proposal that the transparency standards operating in the Scottish Parliament should also apply to Westminster was agreed. I think that was the most important agreement at that meeting, because from now on it will be impossible to go back to the kind of secrecy that was highlighted by the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field). We cannot go back to the days of secrecy; transparency is the key to the future. We also agreed that an independent inquiry should proceed, and that conclusions should be agreed in full. The party leaders thought that it was important that all our parties should work together, and I am seeking to reflect that in my comments. Following this meeting, there were regular follow-up meetings, chaired by the Justice Secretary and the Leader of the House. I cannot remember how many meetings there have now been since that inaugural meeting, but the figure is about six or seven. Given the justified levels of public opprobrium about the expenses abuses, it was absolutely right for the political parties to work together to expedite these changes as speedily as possible. Everybody has in the back of their mind a concern that rushed legislation might be bad legislation, and it has to be said that a variety of hoops have had to be jumped through at a variety of stages to get us to where we are now, but, by working together, we are finally getting close to finding a fix for the problems facing us. These meetings were the driving force behind the creation of the parliamentary standards authority. I am pleased that it was an SNP proposal that the agency should be designated as "independent". That argument was persuasive; clearly, even Westminster parties are open to persuasion on independence, at least sometimes. We therefore now have a body called the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority—because independent it must, of course, be. Initially, IPSA was empowered to deal only with expenses. Pay and pensions were not included in the initial legislation for reasons we completely understand. That was to be put right at the earliest opportunity, however. We have heard from the right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young) of the confusion about how quickly that might proceed, but we are here today and that is very much to be welcomed because, together with other improvements including on matters relating to compliance, we are now moving ahead on the pay and pensions issues. That is key, because parliamentarians should not be responsible in any way for their own pay and pensions, or for setting their own expenses levels. The Justice Secretary is well aware of my disappointment that the gold standards operating in the Scottish Parliament for matters of compliance were not emulated in legislation dealing with MPs transgressing in this House. There is an irony in this. The Westminster Chamber legislated for the creation of the Scottish Parliament and set the rules under which it would operate, including criminal sanctions when Members of the Scottish Parliament transgressed the rules. However, Members of this House—Members of the Conservative and Labour parties—did not agree that that same high, gold standard of criminal sanction should apply to Members of Parliament in this Chamber in the future. That is totally beyond me. The SNP believed, and continues to believe, that criminal sanctions that can apply to MSPs should also apply to Members of this House. Notwithstanding that shortcoming, I believe that creating an IPSA with real teeth is vital, and that is what is being completed by these provisions. MPs have forfeited any credible right, as have the UK Government, to determine pay, expenses and pensions—that was forfeited some time ago. The right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire and the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) raised some important and commendable points about compliance officers and some other queries, but I have no reason to doubt that the Justice Secretary will continue his collegial approach before Report so that things can be smoothed and ironed out. For that reason, I shall be supporting the progress of these provisions today.