Parliamentary Standards Bill

I am very glad to respond to the Clause 11 stand part debate of the noble Lord, Lord Higgins. I hope I can put his mind at rest on this point. Essentially, Clause 11 deals with the transition from the existing regime in the House of Commons to the new regime. It deals with matters that are exclusively the concern of the other place. It has been discussed and, indeed, amended in the other place. The provisions were included in the Bill as a result of discussions between the leaders of the parties in both Houses and representatives of the Committee on Standards and Privileges and the House authorities. Perhaps I could set out what Clause 11 does. Essentially, it provides that a Minister of the Crown, who would be the Leader of the Commons, may by order make various provisions. First, the order may provide that the House’s rules on allowances should have effect for specified purposes as though they were included in a scheme made by IPSA. That essentially allows IPSA and Commissioner for Parliamentary Investigations to take up their functions as soon as possible without having first to go through the process of revising the existing rules. It may also provide that the rules on registration of financial interests and the rules prohibiting paid advocacy should have effect as if they had been included in the code drawn up by IPSA. Again this allows IPSA and Commissioner for Parliamentary Investigations to take up their functions as soon as possible. The order may also provide for the setting off of allowances unpaid before the advent of IPSA against allowances due to be paid after IPSA comes into operation. This is because some MPs who have previously been overpaid allowances, instead of repaying that amount immediately, receive in lieu a lower amount of allowances for a period in the future. This order-making power permits such arrangements in respect of overpayments under the old system to continue even after the transition to the new system. The order-making power also permits a scheme to be established so that the transition of the staff from the House to IPSA can be managed sensibly, without either duplication or gaps. Such a scheme could only be made by the Minister of the Crown with the consent of the Speaker in his capacity as chair of the House of Commons Commission. I take this opportunity to draw your Lordships’ attention to subsection (3), although I understand the noble Lord, Lord Higgins, was specifically asking questions on subsection (2). However, perhaps I may go on to talk about the clause in general. There was some concern in the other place that IPSA and the commissioner might be applying more stringent standards to the investigation of complaints under the old rules once they took over administering them. The amendments which have already been made to the clause addressed many of those points, in particular making it clear that where a case had been settled under the existing regime it could not be reopened under the new one. In other words, IPSA and the commissioner can deal only with complaints that arise after they take on responsibility for the scheme or the code. Subsection (3) reinforces the effect of this by making it clear that the offences regime in the Bill will not apply to any complaint relating to the existing scheme or code, regardless of when the complaint is made. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Higgins, that it is not a question of the Minister of the Crown—that is, the Leader of the House of Commons—changing rules willy-nilly as he feared might be suggested. It enables the current rules to be transferred to the new regime in the transitional period before work has been undertaken by IPSA to bring the new schemes into fruition. I also assure that these would have to be approved by the House of Commons. The role of the Leader is to place the matter before the Commons to be decided. These are sensible provisions that essentially allow for a sensible transition from the current situation to the new situation, ensuring that there will be no gap between the operation of the old and new systems. I hope that I have reassured the noble Lord on that point.