What a squalid mess our system for reimbursing MPs’ expenses is. Whether it’s Mr Jacqui Smith’s much-publicised solo viewing habits, the inevitable confusion among highly-paid, highly-skilled representatives about first and second homes, or the shameless London MPs claiming for a second home despite being within easy commuting distance of Parliament, things have got to change.
Gordon Brown has ordered an inquiry into the whole system. While this may produce useful reforms, former Commons Clerk Sir Roger Sands fears the inquiry itself is vulnerable to political meddling and sabotage. Given the sovereignty of Parliament, this is inevitable.
Parliament is structurally proof against any kind of effective regulation. The final veto on an MP’s behaviour lies with citizens’ votes in the ballot box. But how can citizens be sufficiently well informed to be able to make good choices?
I propose an open database of MPs’ expenses operating in near-real time. The government seem to be very keen on databases for the rest of us so I’m sure they will be keen to commit resources to making this happen.
Every line item from every receipt submitted for reimbursement is keyed into the system. We will be able to see exactly what has been claimed and which claims are pending, approved and rejected.
Every line item is tagged. This will enable people to see not just the claims submitted by specific MPs but to easily make comparisons across the group. Want to see all MPs’ claims for their televisions? It should be as easy as a visit to http://expenses.parliament.uk/tags/tvs
Given that websites shouldn’t discriminate against machines, every piece of data in the system will be available through convenient feed formats like RSS and an open API, allowing programmers to build useful mashups and visualisations of the data.
If the only way to stop cabinet ministers on £135,000 a year claiming 88p for bathplugs in their family homes is to put every such claim online within a week, let us make it so. Given that the historical data is supposedly on sale for £300,000, can we find 300,000 people with a pound each to get it?