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The Legislative Origins of the MPs ' Expenses Scandal
Author(s) -
Little Gavin,
Stopforth David
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the modern law review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1468-2230
pISSN - 0026-7961
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2230.12003
Subject(s) - legislature , jurisdiction , statutory law , political science , law , business , public administration , advertising
The MPs ' expenses scandal of 2009 was one of the most controversial Parliamentary events of modern times. It had a profound impact on public perceptions of MPs and led to the P arliamentary S tandards Act 2009. Little academic consideration has, however, been given to the legislative origins of the scandal and the role of ministers and MPs in the creation of the system for MPs ' expenses under the F inance A ct 1984. Using official documents obtained by F reedom of I nformation requests, we construct a comprehensive historical analysis of how – without one word of debate in P arliament and only minimal media coverage – ministers and MPs created a special statutory scheme for their own benefit, which they had effective control of and which exempted their expenses claims from the rules applying to other UK taxpayers and the jurisdiction of the I nland R evenue.