Barbara's statement on allowances and the Legg Review - Dec 2009

Below is Barbara's statement on the new set of allowance claims published by the House of Commons authorities on 10 December 2009.

“I fully support the process of publication of MPs’ claims against the allowances which they use to enable them to stay in London on Parliamentary Business and to staff and run the offices that support their work in the constituency and in Westminster.

“The details being published now are of edited scans of my second home allowance (called the Additional Cost Allowance) claims for 2008/09 and for the first quarter of 2009/10, which have been published on Parliament’s website this morning. This information has also been reproduced on my own website so that my constituents can view my claims for this period, alongside those already available which date back to 2005 when I was first elected to serve as the Member of Parliament for Worsley.

“There has also been an audit of all claims against this allowance from 2005 to 2009 in a review conducted recently by Sir Thomas Legg. I have now received a letter from Sir Thomas Legg in which he states that he intends to report to the House of Commons Member’s Estimate Committee that there are no issues with the claims I have made. I have also made a scanned copy of that letter from Sir Thomas Legg available on my website.”

A scanned copy of the letter Barbara received from Sir Thomas Legg following his review of all MPs claims can be viewed here

Barbara's statement on living costs in London - May 2009

The claims and receipts have now been put online by the House of Commons and are available on the UK Parliament website.

However, in advance of publication by Parliament I took the following action:

Firstly, I made my copies of the claims and receipts available to a reporter from the Manchester Evening News. The reporter looked at every single receipt and claim and then wrote an article in the Manchester Evening News about his review on Thursday 21st May.

Text from the MEN article follows:

“Worsley Labour MP Barbara Keeley believes it is right that MPs' expenses should be subject to full public scrutiny. Elected in 2005 and now a government whip, she said: "Certainly in the past there were some very odd ways of doing things. I have worked in the private sector and found some of it surprising."

"Revealing her full expenses to the MEN, Ms Keeley maintained her claims had been straightforward and backed with receipts. They include £781 to carpet her constituency office in Walkden, £1145 for office furniture and £336 for blinds (NOTE: For the office).

"She claimed £419 for towels, bed linen, duvets and pillows for use in a rented London flat in 2005 after first moving to the capital as an MP. Other items included £149 for a small TV. Unlike many other MPs, she did not make regular claims for food, submitting only a handful of bills.

"After later buying a two-bed flat in London, she claimed £15,285 towards stamp duty and fees, as allowed under the rules. This also covered all mortgage and utility bills for an eight month period. No claims were made for furniture for the flat, which has "lost value considerably" since she bought it."

On Friday 22nd May, I had two further reviews of my claims and receipts with reporters from the Salford Advertiser and Salford Online website. I answered the reporters’ questions in detail.

My claims are for living costs in Westminster, travelling costs to Westminster, running costs for my constituency office in Walkden and communications with constituents. Costs are often high in the first few years after an MPs election - the rented flat I lived in was £1,700 a month and mortgage interest has been about £1,400-£1,500 per month. Apart from claims for items needed to use a furnished flat, I then only claimed for rent and utility bills. The deposit paid back on the flat I rented also had £125 deducted for standard dilapidations.

When I moved to another flat, I claimed the help which was allowed with stamp duty and legal fees, but this also covered eight months mortgage interest and utility bills which I paid myself. I bought all my own furniture and fittings and have replaced all broken items (such as a washing machine) myself.

I also pay all the bills on my main home, in the same way as everyone else.

The independent Kelly enquiry is looking at all these matters and I believe we should move urgently to make all necessary reforms. We also need a wider debate about further reform to improve the way Parliament works and I welcome that.

Barbara's statement on office running costs in Walkden - May 2009

I have a fully staffed constituency office in Walkden, which has been built up from scratch since 2005. I found the office in July 2005 and moved in during September 2005 after redecorating and providing carpets in 2 smaller office rooms. The costs of carpeting (£781) and decorating the offices (£395) were balanced by having a rent-free period of about five months. When I employed more staff I also took on a larger general office so we now have a small room for meeting with constituents and others.

Rent

The rental for the 4 rooms at 37 Manchester Road, Walkden is set at a normal commercial rent of £12,600. Together with service charges and utility bills, the offices cost around £14,000 to rent. I also pay business rates to Salford City Council on the offices. When I moved into the offices, I also had to buy all the necessary office furniture for my four staff and myself. This included desks, filing cabinets, a copier and a printer and later a phone system with three lines. We have also built up the office including all the stationery and office supplies needed for five people.

Office equipment

Included in our running costs in Walkden are necessary IT equipment and a camera to take photos for use in campaigning and newsletters. We have four personal computers supplied centrally by the House of Commons, plus two laptop computers. I use one of these laptops to work on when I am not in Parliament and the other was bought for staff use in 2006. We have a basic digital camera bought for £212 in June 2006, which is kept in the constituency office. The pictures from this camera are quite low resolution and I have more recently bought for the office and claimed for a smaller digital camera for £310. This newer camera is used both in Westminster and in Walkden.

General office running costs

In terms of general running costs, I have mainly claimed about £60 a month for petty cash, which has been used to pay for a variety of small items needed in both Walkden and Westminster. We have made one claim in the past for tea and coffee for the office but now buy all such items ourselves locally.

This year the limit on office running costs is £22,393 (the allowance is called the Administrative and Office Expenditure allowance). In 2007/08 I claimed £28,884 after transferring some allowance from the staffing budget. Because our basic office running costs of rent, utility bills and rates use a high proportion of the budget I transfer an amount from the other budget to make running costs workable.

Staffing costs

Staffing costs are paid from the Staffing Allowance and they include staff salaries and employers National Insurance contributions. I employ four staff at Walkden – one full time and three part time, and one full-time staff member at Westminster. None of my staff are relatives and all are paid directly from the House of Commons on approved salary scales. In 2007/08 the staffing expenditure for my team was £70,686 in total.

During 2006/7 and 2007/8 I employed Malcolm Clarke as a part time office manager to help set up processes in my constituency office and also improve the way we handled casework and correspondence. Malcolm Clarke has many years of senior management experience in local government and the Health Service and paying him £7,650 and £3,850 across the two years was a very cost effective way of strengthening my office team.

In November 2007, I had two training sessions to improve my speaking skills with voice coach Luan de Burgh. Training like this is specifically allowed under the Office Costs and Staffing allowance

Our combined staffing and office running costs of £99,570 compare favourably with the group of MPs in the North West who were elected at the same time as me in May 2005. Out of the nine North West MPs first elected in May 2005, my office and staffing costs rank 8 out 9.

The office is very busy handling casework issues for thousands of people and from the Thank You notes we are sent I believe we are doing a good job for constituents.