There has been a great deal of media interest in the securing a detailed break down of the MPs Additional Costs Allowance. This allowance currently stands at £23,000 per year and is designed to compensate MPs for the costs of living away from home at Westminster to carry out their parliamentary duties.
The rules governing the allowance are very elastic: it can be spent on rent; hotel bills; mortgage interest; eating out; furnishings; laundry; and basically any legitimate living expense.
Currently only the total figure is published for each MP but Freedom of Information requests have demanded detailed breakdowns of how the money has been spent. Both the Information Commissioner and the Tribunal, have ruled in favour of the information being published but the House of Commons Commission has appealed the decision to the High Court.
I understand the reasons for the appeal but it is frustrating not simply to publish the information and dispel the impression that there is something to hide. I believe, however, it would be wrong to undermine the authority of the Commission by publishing the information relating to my own expenditure which they are in principle seeking to keep confidential.
The figures for the financial year just ended are not the subject of an FOI or appeal and therefore bI feel at liberty to publish them below and to indicate where they differ from the pattern of expenditure in the past.
ACA 07 to 08
Mortgage Interest: £8,480.04
Food : £1,670.83
Utilities: £698.20
Council Tax: £1631.44
Telephone: £133.65
Cleaning £588
Service Charge (shared block of flats) £971.23
Maintenance / Other
182.99 insurance
135.50 TV Licence
35.98 TV antennae
45.00 dry cleaning curtains
724.21 decorating
643.59 plumbing; replacing widow panes; sundry other repairs to interior and exterior.
Total £15,940.66
These figures for 07/08 differ significantly from those for 04-07 which are subject to the FOI appeal proceedings: principally my food bill has halved from the earlier years as a consequence of installing a kitchen for £6000 in 06/07. The other non recurring expenditure was in 04/05 when £2156 was spent on curtains and poles.
The relatively high charges for any kind of repair and maintenance, including the kitchen and curtains, reflect the fact that parliamentary hours and weekends in the constituency preclude any kind of DIY, therefore, labour has to be factored in on top of what one might ordinarily spend.
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