British MPs to face a year in prison for fiddling expenses

June 24, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

MPs caught fiddling their expenses could face a year in prison from the autumn after the House of Commons agreed to surrender its right to police itself. Parliament looks likely to approve rules that will see Members who lobby for money or fail to declare how long they spend on work outside Parliament being hauled before a judge.

Gordon Brown promised the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) as part of “root and branch” reform of the system and a code of conduct for MPs, who were presented with 93 pages of new rules and regulations. It will be accompanied by three new criminal offences:

— Knowingly making a false claim for an allowance, with a maximum penalty 12 months’ imprisonment. The law could have been used to attempt to prosecute Michael Trend, the former Tory MP for Windsor found guilty of abusing the allowances system and ordered to repay £90,277. It might also have been used to prosecute Derek Conway, the former Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, who wrongly employed his son;

— Failing to register outside interests, which carries a maximum £5,000 fine. For the first time MPs will have to declare how much they get paid for jobs that have no connection with Parliament and how long they spend on them. This includes, for instance, Sir Menzies Campbell, a barrister, who will have to declare how much time he spends representing clients; — Taking money to lobby for work outside Parliament. Maximum penalty: £5,000 fine. Most famously, this would have caught Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith, who were given money by the lobbyist Ian Greer to ask parliamentary questions, and other tasks, on behalf of the Egyptian owner of Harrods department store, Mohamed Al Fayed.

Mr Brown told the BBC: “There are indeed criminal offences in this Bill so that if an MP misleads deliberately or if an MP does something like, without reasonable excuse, fails to register a relevant interest, that is a criminal offence and that would then be investigated by the police.”

The wording of many of the rules has generated significant concern among MPs because for the first time it means private conduct will be regulated by the courts. For instance, advocacy that benefits one company becomes illegal. However, if the lobbying benefits more than one company, it is apparently legal.

Read full article