Full details of British lawmakers’ expenses were officially published online for the first time yesterday after weeks of leaked newspaper revelations forced a slew of resignations.
The roughly 1.2 million pages of documents on parliament’s Web site are not likely to throw up many fresh surprises, partly because the Daily Telegraph has already published swathes of leaked information showing how lawmakers claimed lavishly for everything from a duck island to moat cleaning.
However, large sections of the information put online yesterday have been blacked out, including lawmakers’ addresses, prompting criticism from some voters and campaigners for transparency.
Vince Cable, treasury spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the latest information was “compromised.”
“Had it not been for the Daily Telegraph, a lot of this stuff would not have come out,” he told the BBC. “It is compromised and therefore less effective than it should be.”
Publication of the expense claims came more than a year after the High Court ordered that they should be disclosed following a lengthy legal battle by freedom of information campaigners.
Junior treasury minister Kitty Ussher became the latest casualty in the expenses row on Wednesday night when she quit after it emerged she had avoided paying tax worth up to a reported £17,000 (US$28,000) on the sale of her house by “flipping.”
This is the practice of redesignating which home lawmakers — many of whom have houses both in London and their constituencies — classify as their second residence and affects how much allowances and expenses they can claim.
Dozens of ministers and lawmakers have quit over the row in recent weeks and the main political parties are investigating possible abuses of the system.
An official review is under way and is expected to publish proposals for the reform of the system later this year.
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