Foreword
I present this annual report for 2008-09 at a time
when the standing and reputation of Members of Parliament is at
a very low ebb. The expenses crisis has drawn in many (but certainly
not all) Members and has led to widespread public distrust in
Members of Parliament as a group, and in our parliamentary institutions
as a whole.
It is impossible to predict at the time of writing
what the outcome will be. I hope that out of recent events will
come a new and stronger compact between Members of Parliament
and those they serve. This needs to be based on a mutual understanding
of the work the public want their Members of Parliament to do
on their behalf, and the support they need to do it, and an understanding
by Members of the implications of the trust people must place
in them. Institutions and structures will have their place in
sealing that compact. But ultimately it will be for each Member
of Parliament to rebuild the trust that has been lost.
In the meantime, this report sets out the work undertaken
by my office in 2008-09. Complaints against Members of Parliament
attract understandable attention. This year I have completed inquiries
into 46 complaints against Members - an average of nearly one
a week. I have found that 27 Members breached the rules in 30
of those cases. In 14 complaints, I considered the breach sufficiently
serious to report the matter to the Committee on Standards and
Privileges. Each of the Memoranda I submitted to the Committee,
and the evidence on which I based my conclusions, was published
in full with the Committee's report.
Elsewhere, as this report shows, my office has continued
to produce the registers of Members' interests, and other registers,
throughout the year. We have implemented a new registrable category
for those Members who employ a member of their family from parliamentary
resources. We continue to give advice about their obligations
to register and declare interests to Members who seek our help.
We have supported the Committee on Standards and Privileges, and
worked closely with the Electoral Commission, on proposals to
simplify Members' registration procedures.
I have also advised the Committee on matters affecting
the rules of the House, including on Government proposals for
the audit and assurance of Members' allowances. But it has subsequently
become very clear that these measures would not of themselves
be sufficient to meet the widespread public concern that followed
the expenses disclosures in May 2009. Urgent and fundamental
change is needed. I and my office are ready to assist all those,
in the House and outside, who seek to put any new system on a
sound and publicly acceptable basis.
I thank the Chairman and Members of the Committee
on Standards and Privileges and its successive Clerks for their
support in this important work. And I record my grateful thanks
to all the staff in my office who have achieved so much this year
under increasing - and understandable - pressure. They have together
shown expertise and a commitment to the House and to public service
which it is right I should acknowledge.
30 June 2009 John Lyon CB
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