Publication ban on MPs' expenses receipts

The new body charged with overseeing parliamentary expenses will not publish the receipts submitted by MPs when it releases details of their claims next month, it has been announced.

House of Commons authorities were forced to publish receipts after losing a long-running legal battle, and their leak to the Daily Telegraph last year sparked the biggest expenses controversy in parliamentary history.

A review of the expenses system following the scandal, led by standards watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly, recommended that the new expenses regulator "should continue to publish, at least quarterly, each individual claim for reimbursement made by MPs with accompanying receipts or documentary evidence".

But the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said yesterday that it would be too expensive to put future receipts online.

"The cost of preparing tens of thousands of receipts for publication would be more than £1 million a year and would not provide value for taxpayers' money," said a spokesman.

Instead, MPs' claims under the new expenses regime will be published on Ipsa's website under general categories - such as "travel" - with a description of each claim.

The first tranche of expenses, featuring details of 22,000 claims by 576 MPs, will be published at www.parliamentary-standards.org.uk at 10am on December 2. Future claims will be made public at two-monthly intervals.

The first round of publication will cover claims made and reimbursed between May 7 and August 31 this year.

But claims which were rejected by Ipsa before September 14 will not be published.

"This recognises that, during the initial stages of the new regime, MPs, their staff, and indeed Ipsa staff, took time to familiarise themselves with the new rules and system," said the watchdog.

"Details of all claims made from September 15 onwards will be published proactively, including those not paid."

Ipsa will also be publishing data on MPs' office rental and staffing costs once a year.