Administration CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Nicky Morgan MP

Many thanks for your invitation to comment on induction arrangements for new MPs after General Elections.

I feel very strongly that MPs are completely unprepared (particularly those who have never worked in Westminster and we do want those types of MPs!) that they are, in effect, about to start running a small business especially in terms of employing staff. Accommodation needs to be sorted out much more quickly—I have never arrived in any job where I did not have a permanent desk and a telephone on the first day.

There is absolutely no training on how to employ staff. There should be much more guidance and training on how to set up our offices and employ people (including guidance on the contracts and job descriptions to be issued)—in fact, I think all candidates should be written to once the election has been called and they should be invited to be considering these things during the course of the campaign. I believe that the House of Commons should provide a secretarial pool for the first 6 weeks—one of our first tasks is trying to deal with a mountain of correspondence and invitations. This is not political and could be handled by any efficient secretary on a temporary basis. I also think this sort of pool arrangement would avoid a lot of the hasty employment of staff which results from the sheer panic to get sorted—these arrangements then have to be unwound as it turns out that the staffing relationships don’t work at all well.

Office costs also have to be addressed. I know that IPSA now have a budget for initial office costs but no doubt that relies on making claims in the normal way so the MP has to pay out for stationery etc. for themselves and their London and constituency staff putting a huge financial pressure on MPs who have probably earnt nothing for at least the previous month if they have given up/taken leave from their previous employment in order to fight their seat. IPSA must ensure their credit card has sufficient credit to cover all necessary start-up costs for all office and London accommodation.

31 January 2013