'Making MPs
work for our money'
Parliament
needs reform
Take the historic role of MPs - to examine the Budget.
Parliament
does so badly that the last time MPs bothered to reject a
Government spending request was in 1919.
Eightyone years ago, the Government requested a second
bathroom for the Lord Chancellor. The MPs prersumably
voted that down because of the extravagence.
Contrast that with today's MPs. In 1997 they were
similarly outraged about expensive wallpaper for the
current Lord Chancellor, yet they did nothing.
Not enough
work done
Today,
too many MPs do not work hard enough for their money.
Even diligent MPs are thwarted from examining the Budget
properly by outdated procedures and insufficient
resources. So Governments ride roughshod over Parliament.
My proposals
This
week I published my ideas for changing this in a pamphlet
called 'Making MPs Work for our Money'.
After serving on Finance Bill Committees and the Treasury
Select Committee, I now know how Parliament fails the
taxpayer.
I made ten recommendations.
My
key proposal is for the Office for the Taxpayer (OfTax) - to provide the back-up analysis
which MPs now lack.
OfTax would be independent and headed by a new top
official, the Taxpayers' Investigator General. OfTax
would advise MPs on the Budget and help model alternative
budget ideas.
A
second proposal is to give MPs powers and duties on the
Budget. Currently
the rules of the Commons actually prevent sensible Budget
amendments from being debated. Worse still, some Select
Committees never even examine the budgets proposed by the
Department they are supposed to be watching.
My paper advocates a reform package that, I believe,
would revitalise Parliament and ensure MPs get better
value for taxpayers' money.
Read the full
version
You can view the complete text of my publication in pdf
format here.
Making MPs
Work for our Money
(Note that this may
take up to three minutes to download with a slow modem
link)
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document
.
Alternatively
you can read an article which summarises the publication.
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Links About the pamphlet
Summary of contents
and proposals
Centre for
Reform
Details about the
pamphlet
Launch of pamphlet
Centre for Reform
press release
Making MPs
Work for our Money
The full text in pdf
format (see bottom of page if you need to download a
reader)
Current campaigns
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