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New expenses system under fire just two weeks into new parliament

The new online system of parliamentary expenses has been attacked by Members of Parliament, who are furious about the inefficiency of the online operation. They claim the system - managed by IPSA which was set up last year following the explosion over MPs expenses and which replaced the old in-house ‘fees office’ - crashes, is inefficient and is unable to cope.

The leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young MP, said he was ‘seriously concerned about the number of complaints he was receiving.’ He assured the chamber that ‘the technical concerns that MPs had would be addressed ‘as quickly as possible’.

MPs claimed the system was leaving them out of pocket and one senior member, Barry Sheerman, claimed the system was ‘at war with MPs who had young families who may live some distance from this House and without consultation [IPSA] have changed the rules for families making it more difficult for families to stay together.’ But Sir George insisted family life would be protected.

Labour MP, Dennis Skinner, claimed the system was anything but secure having himself received an email which should have gone to another member of parliament. Skinner said ‘a system which has allowed this kind of breach to happen within a matter of weeks has to stop. He went on to ask if Mr Kennedy, the IPSA chairman, completed his expenses online.

Sir George said any breach of security was taken very seriously especially on the matter of MPs expenses and would explore what methods may be put in place for those who do not want to use an online system.

IPSA is planning a review but said it had no knowledge of the online system crashing and insisted that there had not been an instance of security breeches when security may have been compromised. The IPSA website says that each MP has been given a gold coloured security token which is designed to enhance security and if lost it must be replaced at a cost of £127 to replace it.

01/06/2010