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MPs can appeal against repayments MPs given fresh expenses appeal
(21 minutes later)
MPs will be allowed to appeal against calls to repay expenses judged to be wrongly claimed, the Commons committee which considers expenses has said. MPs will be allowed to appeal against repaying expenses judged to have been overclaimed, says a Commons committee.
But the Members' Estimate Committee said it was recommending that MPs repay money when asked to do so. Many MPs were angry that an audit of second home claims over since 2004 imposed retrospective limits on claims for cleaning and gardening.
They will be expected to repay sums voluntarily but if not face having it recovered from future pay or expenses. Gordon Brown was among those asked to repay money. He urged MPs to pay up but others planned to defy the demands.
Auditor Sir Thomas Legg has asked many MPs to repay sums after applying retrospective limits on some claims. The Members Estimate Committee said it will recommend MPs repay money but will set up an appeals process.
It is up to the committee to decide what to do about auditor Sir Thomas Legg's final recommendations, now expected in early 2010.
'Fair and equitable'
It has asked former Lord Justice of Appeal Sir Paul Kennedy - who was also the government's Interception of Communications Commissioner - to consider written submissions by some MPs "showing cause why there are special reasons in the individual case that it would not be fair and equitable to require repayment either at all, or at the level recommended".
That process will be completed in early 2010, the committee says, and the findings will be published alongside auditor Sir Thomas Legg's final report.
But the committee said it would recommend to MPs that any overpayments identified by Sir Thomas should be repaid voluntarily.
It will propose that if it is not, the demands will be "recovered by setting off sums owed against future payments of allowances and/or salary".
Sir Thomas was asked by Gordon Brown to review all past claims back to 2004 under the second homes allowance - following the scandal over MPs' expenses.
But he chose to impose his own retrospective limits on some claims - notably for cleaning and gardening, which he said should have been set at £2,000 a year and £1,000 a year respectively.
It provoked a furious response from many MPs, who have been given time to respond to his recommendations that they repay money.
They point out that the claims were allowed under the rules at the time but Sir Thomas has said working out exactly what those rules were was "not straightforward".