Sir Christopher Kelly has published his report and recommendations for change on MPs expenses. Skip related content
The chair of the committee on standards in public life has recommended a wide-ranging shake up of the system.
Kelly said that MPs should not longer be allowed to claim support for mortgage interest, but recommended an "appropriate transitional provisions of one more Parliament or for five years".
He called for an end to capital gains at public expense and an end to 'flipping' properties.
"Any capital gains made during the transitional period attributable to public support will be surrendered to the taxpayer," he said.
Among Kelly's other recommendations:
* Going forward MPs should be reimbursed only for rent or hotel costs. The Committee recommend that the independent regulator use a central agency to source, maintain and handle payments on suitable properties.
* The expenses scheme should only cover additional accommodation costs wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred in pursuit of MPs' parliamentary duties - council tax, utility bills, telephone line rental and calls, security, contents insurance and removals at the beginning and end of a tenancy. The costs of cleaning, gardening, furnishings and other items should not be reimbursed or otherwise covered.
* MPs with constituencies within reasonable commuting distance of Parliament should no longer be entitled to additional accommodation and the London cost allowance should be reduced for all London MPs to the level proposed by the (SSRB) independent pay review body in 2007. The Committee have proposed a higher rate for those who commute from outside Greater London area to reflect their higher travel costs.
* The practice of employing family members should be brought to an end by the end of the next Parliament of five years.
* The communication allowance should be abolished.
* The £25 overnight subsistence allowance should in future only be available to MPs staying in hotels and against receipts.
* Only MPs whose departure is involuntary should receive the resettlement grant from the next general election after next. MPs who voluntarily step down will instead receive eight weeks' pay. Removal of the grant should also be considered as a sanction for those who are found to have abused the system.
* All expenses should be accompanied by receipts or documentary evidence and receipts or documentary evidence should continue to be published.
* MPs should not be prohibited from paid employment such as journalism outside the House, providing any such activity in reasonable limits. But it should be transparent and information about it should be drawn to voters' attention at election time.
* The report also proposes that the practice of allowing a Westminster MP to sit simultaneously in a devolved legislature, known as 'double jobbing' should be brought to an end, ideally by 2011.
The final decision on the new expenses regime will be taken by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa).
It was established by Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, rushed through the last session as a reaction to public fury about MPs' expenses claims.
Expected to begin work in Spring 2010, Ipsa will create for the first time a system of independent regulation of MPs' salaries, allowances and financial interests.
It will have the power to investigate and invoke non-parliamentary sanctions analogous to those operated by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
At the launch of his report Kelly said:
"The recommendations for change that we are publishing today aim to strike a balance - on one hand ensuring that MPs are properly supported and fully reimbursed for necessary costs incurred in doing their important work and on the other providing strong safeguards for the taxpayer to prevent the abuses of the past."
Read the Kelly report here.
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