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Following the recent media coverage of MPs' expenses I have taken the decision to publicly outline my expenses.
I think that people are right to be angry about some of the things that Members of Parliament have claimed for, and that sadly this issue has undermined our political process. I believe that representing a parliamentary constituency is an honour, a privilege and a great responsibility, and I am saddened that the majority of the public now assume that all Members of Parliament are scoundrels and crooks. In my experience of twenty years in politics, four of those years as a ‘professional paid politician’, I have found that the vast majority who go into politics do so for honourable and good reasons, and certainly not for personal financial gain. It is clear however that with a horrendously complicated rule book, improper enforcement of the rules and a lack of independent audit that a large number of Members of Parliament have made unacceptable claims.
I think that every Member of Parliament shares some responsibility for the erosion in public confidence which has occurred, in us individually, and collectively as a Parliament. I’d like to apologise to all of my constituents for any part I have played in this. I believe that David Cameron has acted with great leadership on this issue. He has consistently enforced higher standards on his Conservative Members of Parliament than is expected of us by the institution of Parliament. However there is much more to be done and we are looking to the independent Kelly commission to review these issues as a whole package.
I must stress that I would struggle to perform my duties as effectively as I do now, without the allowances provided. As you will see below they cover the essentials of running offices in both Westminster and Southend. The allowances are there to allow me to discharge my responsibilities as your Member of Parliament, and I take the view that I should use these as effectively as I can to hold the government to account and to represent the people of Rochford and Southend East. However, I am reviewing every line of expenditure at present to see what savings I can make, and will reduce my expenditure overall next year, whilst importantly still trying to increase the level of service that I am able to provide to constituents.
I believe that honesty and transparency are the best ways to deal with the issue of Members of Parliaments’ allowances and as such in this letter I decided that I would outline the exact figures which I claimed for the financial year 07/08. As you may be aware from recent press articles, in the financial year 1st April 2007 – 31st March 2008 my expenses came to a total of £156,040, this figure excludes all travel costs, which I have detailed below.
In the financial year 2007-2008 two members of my staff were away on maternity leave. As a result of this overlap in maternity leave, the expenses for Temporary Secretarial Allowance accrued for the period came to £7,646. The cost of this statutory maternity leave resulted in my expenses for this period being higher than in previous years, when no member of staff went on maternity leave, and it is for this reason that my claims for this year are higher than expected. Details of my expenses can be found on the website www.theyworkforyou.com which outlines that I was the 102nd most expensive Member of Parliament in that year, the previous year I was 199th, the difference relates to the payment of maternity leave cover.
Turning to the expenses I claimed, I have broken down the expenses claimed by all Members of Parliament into four main segments below and have explained exactly what these cover, and what the maximum allowance is for each category.
In addition to these costs, I spent £1,465 on the stationery which I use to correspond with all the constituents who contact me, to date I have corresponded with 12,825 constituents. I claimed £5,237 for postage costs for this correspondence, and £1,290 on Information Technology which covers the cost of purchasing replacement computers and printers when necessary. I also spent £751 on rail travel, and £3,030 in mileage over this period. My employees travelled a total of 16 times for work purposes between London and Southend, costing £174.
The allowances I claimed are:
- An Incidental Expense Provision, of £19,787.96 out of a maximum permitted of £21,349. This expenditure includes the costs of my constituency office on Southchurch Road where I meet with constituents and members of the local community regularly, stationery costs, computer and technology costs, constituency office phone bills, and also an annual fee for the constituency database which I use to contact constituents.
- A Communications Allowance, of £10,000 of which I have spent £7,359. This allowance pays for all the newsletters which I send to constituents, as well as advertising my regular constituency surgeries, and the delivery of these publications to the 90,000 constituents of Rochford and Southend East.
- A Staffing Allowance of a maximum £90,505, out of which I spent £89,704.35. I currently employ three full time members of staff and two part-time staff members. All five members of my staff are paid within Parliamentary pay scales and in line with the work they undertake, which is invaluable to my work as an MP. I also have to meet National Insurance and pensions contributions. My wife Katy has been employed by me since 2006. She works one day a week, and is paid £3733 per year, which is within parliamentary pay scales. She usually works in the constituency office, where she helps to plan my constituency engagements as well as doing data entry and general administrative duties.
- An Additional Costs Allowance, of which I have spent £22,975.24 out of a maximum available to Members of Parliament of £23,083. This contributes towards the costs of a flat in Westminster.
A number of constituents have asked me why I have a second home in London considering that the commute from Thorpe Bay to Westminster is just under two hours. I appreciate that a number of constituents do not find this appropriate, and that over 20,000 people commute from Southend everyday, many of whom do not work a traditional working day. Members of Parliaments’ working hours are unfortunately not very commuter friendly, as my work demands very early starts and I often finish work at midnight, or later.
To use last week as an example the House sat until 10.30pm on Monday, until 2am on Tuesday and on Wednesday I was in House of Commons until 10pm. In all candour this example is an exceptional week, however I rarely expect to leave much before midnight on Mondays or Tuesdays. That Thursday I had appointments in both London and Southend and so returned from London earlier to attend these meetings. Fridays are reserved for a full day of constituency engagements, as are most weekends. Most mornings when I have stayed in London overnight I get into the office around 7.30am in order to prepare for the day and clear my email. Overnight I review a box of constituency casework and any mail that I have not had the chance to deal with during the day.
Last year the majority of my Additional Cost Allowance was used up on mortgage interest payments for my flat. In addition it was used to pay for utilities, service charges and council tax. Like many constituents my mortgage interest was very high at the time, however in recent months the interest payments are lower owing to falling interest rates, which will ensure that this claim will be reduced this year. In my first year as a Member of Parliament I stayed in a hotel or more commonly stayed with a friend at no cost to the taxpayer. I then moved into a flat I have owned since 2001, which was purchased as an investment and was rented out prior to my election and has been rented out subsequently. In late 2006 I purchased a property that is within short walking distance of the House of Commons, which I now stay in when working late in London. I have never claimed for stamp duty for this flat, and funded its purchase with a deposit from my own money. My main home has always been in Southend both for the purpose of the House of Commons and the Inland Revenue. I have never ‘flipped’ my main residence from Southend to London, my family and I live in Southend.
In the four years since I have been a Member of Parliament I have spent around £900 on kitchen, bedroom and bathroom items. In the first financial year that I was a Member of Parliament I claimed £7,000, relating to building repairs and internal redecoration. I have not claimed for any furniture for the flat, as I was fortunate enough to be given some hand me downs from family and friends rather than having to buy anything new.
Following the series of articles in the Daily Telegraph about Members of Parliaments’ allowances David Cameron has announced immediate and far reaching changes to the way Conservative Members of Parliament act. He said that the issue of allowances had done “much to undermine our whole political process” and he apologised for the actions of some Conservative Members of Parliament. My party is currently setting up a new Scrutiny Panel which will examine any excessive claims made by Conservative Members of Parliament. In addition to this I will be providing a copy of all my expenses for review, and as David Cameron said, if I find anything which could be deemed inappropriate or excessive then I will of course pay this money back to the taxpayer.
At some point, I will be putting all my receipts online for my constituents to see, the vast majority of which will relate to office stationery. These are currently being checked and collated by the Fees Office. In future any claims I make will be published online. It may take a few weeks to get this system up and running, but I promise that as soon as possible I will put all claims online.
I will also be holding a specialist open surgery at my office on Southchurch Road and will be happy to arrange an appointment for any constituent who would like to ask me any further questions on my expenses following this letter. Any constituents who want to speak to me about my expenses should phone my office on 01702 616135.
I hope that this letter has gone some way to explaining the nature of the allowances that I have claimed as a Member of Parliament. I hope that the steps that we are taking to reform this system will help to restore your trust in politics. However I acknowledge that it is unacceptable to simply blame a flawed system and not take any personal and moral responsibility for our actions.
James Duddridge MP
Rochford and Southend East
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