MPs, ministers and their political staff should be paid according to civil service pay scales, should have any expenses approved only in line with established civil service guidelines and must act according to the Nolan Principles that apply to all public bodies.

The legitimacy of Parliament depends on the trust which the public has in individual MPs and in the way in which all MPs conduct their personal and political lives.  

An MP currently has an annual salary of £64,766.  In addition London MPs also receive a London Weighting Allowance of £7,500 which was increased by 157% from the previous figure of £2,916 in a Commons vote on the 3rd July 2008.  A review of MPs remuneration needs to:

• define how many days per year are required to be a good constituency MP who is not a member of any Select Committee or other Commons organization or a minister or a PPS (taking into account the little time which most ministers spend each week on constituency business as a marker for the time required for these duties)
• decide appropriate flexing of this basic amount to take into account the currently different constituency responsibilities for backbench English MPs compared with MPs who are from one of the devolved nations
• determine additional remuneration for backbench MPs who serve on or chair Select or Standing Committees or other Commons organisations
• determine additional remuneration for the four different tiers of ministers

A review will then link each of these salary levels to the appropriate one in the civil service.

The issue of expenses is a particularly sensitive one for many voters and has become even more so since the revelations in April 2009.  It has become clear that MPs have become used to using taxpayers money, even within the rules, in a way which would never be sanctioned in any other charitable, commercial or public organisation.  This includes housing expenses when other housing is available, relatively excessive personal purchases (the John Lewis list) and the employment of relatives without any proper independent selection procedure or appraisal.  The expenses scandal that broke in April 2009 had a further massive effect on public confidence.  The Daily Telegraph summarised it as follows:

'When this newspaper began its series of revelations about MPs' allowances earlier this year, the immediate response of the House of Commons authorities was to ask the police to investigate how the details came to be in the public domain.  It was a confirmation, if one were needed, that Parliament simply failed to understand the deep anger felt in the country about the rapacious goings-on at the Palace of Westminster.  They were soon left in no doubt. The disclosures about house 'flipping', moat cleaning and duck islands appalled the nation, brought down a Speaker and led a number of MPs to announce they were leaving Parliament.'

In addition to their £64,766 salary, Members can claim the following annual allowances:

The seven Nolan Principles of Public Life are Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty and Leadership.  Despite the expenses scandal, many MPs with doubtful expenses are still in the House of Commons and do not meet the Nolan Principles.  MPs must be seen as operating under the same constraints as apply to their electorate in terms of their salaries and expenses, especially as public money is involved.  The civil service has a clear policy on salaries and expenses.   

The Jury Team therefore proposes that all MPs should be subject to the same regime as senior civil servants.  An independent review will consider expenses and determine which grade of civil servant is currently equivalent to an MP.  Expenses for MPs should then be based on the well established principles and practices of the civil service which often has people who have to spend part of the year away from their home.  

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