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MPs' food claims 'could increase' Expenses rules allow food claims
(about 7 hours later)
A change to MPs' expenses designed to clean up the system could allow them to claim nearly twice as much as before. MPs will still be able to make some claims for food, without producing receipts, under amended expenses rules.
The new subsistence allowance, which replaces the food allowance, could be worth £775 a month instead of £400. The Green Book governing MPs' expenses, updated after the expenses scandal, has been published on Parliament's website.
It allows MPs to claim £25 for any night they spend away on Parliamentary business without producing a receipt. Many MPs had faced criticism under the old rules for claiming up to £400 a month for food, without receipts, even when Parliament was in recess.
Senior Labour backbencher Sir Stuart Bell denied the system could be abused, saying MPs would be expected to keep a record of nights spent away from home. The amended rules allow them to claim £25 for each night they are away from home on Parliamentary business.
But the BBC's political correspondent Reeta Chakrabarti said it was unclear whether such records would then be audited. Under the old rules MPs could claim up to £4,800 a year, regardless of how many days Parliament was sitting.
'Broad wording' Under the new rules, if MPs were to claim for every day Parliament sat during the 128-day session this year, they could get a maximum of £3,200.
The House of Commons voted to get rid of the monthly food allowance in July last year. Higher claims?
The change came into force in April, but details of it have only just been published. The amended rules have kept a clause stating: "A flat-rate sum of £25 may be claimed for any night which a member spends away from his or her main home on parliamentary business.
The new rules state: "A flat-rate sum of £25 may be claimed for any night which a member spends away from his or her main home on parliamentary business.
"No receipt is necessary in respect of the flat-rate payment for subsistence.""No receipt is necessary in respect of the flat-rate payment for subsistence."
Our correspondent said the wording of the new rules, set out in the parliamentary green book, is broad enough to enable MPs to claim the subsistence allowance every day of the month if they wish. But the Daily Telegraph, the newspaper which broke a series of stories about claims made under the old expenses system, said there was no way to verify how many nights MPs spent away from their main home on parliamentary business - and said claims could reach up to £9,125 a year.
Doing so would add up to £9,125 a year, compared to the maximum of £4,800 which was available under the old system. Senior Labour backbencher Sir Stuart Bell denied the system could be abused, saying MPs would be expected to keep a record of nights spent away from home.
Following the scandal over expenses earlier this year, MPs voted for a series of reforms to the system. Following the expenses furore earlier this year, MPs voted for a series of reforms to their expenses system.
These included a requirement to back up all claims with receipts. Last week the Parliamentary Standards Bill, which sets up an independent body to run MPs' expenses, passed into law.
The BBC understands that the system is likely to change yet again when an independent inquiry into expenses, conducted by Sir Christopher Kelly, reports in the autumn. But the BBC understands that the system is likely to change yet again when an independent inquiry, conducted by Sir Christopher Kelly, reports in the autumn.