Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

That is a fair point. Another point, which I thought the hon. Gentleman was going to make, but which I now make for him, is that small businesses claim under schedule D, which is rather wider because it refers to expenses "wholly and exclusively incurred" in connection with the business, rather than "wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred", which is the provision under schedule E, the rubric for us. The hon. Member for Worthing, West spoke eloquently about Members who had employed members of their family. I have never employed a member of my family, but not because I regarded myself as a superior being. I see no prospect of employing a member of my family, so that may allow me to say that I think that some of the adverse publicity that members of families have received in the course of the expenses row has been very unfair indeed. Everybody knows that because of serious abuse by one Member in particular, there need to be proper controls, but if members of the public want Members of Parliament to do two jobs, which they do—representing them in the House and also being available with great frequency in their constituency and at weekends—they must accept that that produces greater disruption even than working away from home. That is true. One of the biggest changes that has occurred in the past 30 years, or even in the past 15, is the huge increase in the constituency case loads of all Members of Parliament and the dramatic increase in the expectation of members of the public for the availability of their Member of Parliament. My predecessor could go to my constituency one Friday a month for about six hours. She never had a house in the place and never wanted one. She saw eight people by appointment, did a couple of other things and was correctly regarded as a good constituency Member, because she went to Blackburn much more frequently than many Members of Parliament went to their constituencies. Those days are gone, and the allowance system and the pay need to recognise that. I hope I have satisfied the hon. Member for North Devon, who speaks for the MEC, on the issue of pensions. We will also consider whether there should be a requirement to consult the Government Actuary's Department where there is a shift in the rate of Exchequer contribution. Officials worked extremely hard and under time pressure on the provisions. They sought to replicate the existing statutory provisions under the parliamentary scheme, but I accept that those may not be entirely replicable. With that—