§ The Chairman of Committees rose to move, That the 5th Report from the Select Committee, Session 2002–03, Freedom of Information:Members' Expenses, be agreed to (HL Paper 176, Session 2002–03).
The noble Lord said: My Lords, a year ago the House agreed that information relating to Members' expenses should be published from this autumn. This report follows up that decision by setting out details of what information is to be published and how it is to be published.
Perhaps it would be helpful if I began by setting out what the House has already agreed: the information to be disclosed should be published annually; it should be broken down by the main categories of expenses available—travelling expenses, day subsistence, night subsistence, office costs and the pre-paid envelope scheme; and it should include an indication of the location of each Member's main residence. The House has also agreed that the information initially to be disclosed should include that relating to the three financial years 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04. The House of Commons has come to a similar decision. This House has also decided to publish information about the costs of Select Committee travel, parliamentary delegations to international parliamentary assemblies and financial assistance to opposition parties.
We must now decide on the detailed points involved. The report sets out our recommendations, and we have set out in the appendices the form in which information will be published if our recommendations are agreed. I stress that, in discussing the details of how that should be done, the committee was particularly keen to keep in step with the House of Commons, and where the two Houses have the same or analogous allowances, we propose to publish information in the same way.
I will not go through all our detailed recommendations, but the main ones are: claims for the same type of expense—in practice, travel expenses and office costs—should be aggregated; information about claims by spouses or on account of disability should not be published; and information should be published about former Members.
Once the House has agreed to the form of the information to be published, the Accountant's Office will begin to send out to each Member details relating to 2001–02 and 2002–03. That will be done on a rolling basis to iron out any administrative difficulties. Then, once the claims for this financial year are received and paid, details will be sent to noble Lords of those figures, too. The purpose of that is to enable noble Lords to see the information relating to themselves before it is published and to verify that it is correct.
As noble Lords will be aware, claims should be submitted within three months, so the latest claims for this financial year should be received by 30 June 2004. The committee also decided that information about the nature and costs of Select Committee visits should 1034 be published each financial year; that we should join with the Commons in their system of publishing the costs of parliamentary delegations; and that the annual sums paid to opposition parties under the Cranborne money scheme should be published by the House. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the 5th Report from the Select Committee, Session 2002–03, Freedom of Information: Members' Expenses, be agreed to (HL Paper 176, Session 2002–03).—(The Chairman of Committees.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ Following is the report referred to: