Assembly rules fail to deal with double claiming

“An answer just received from the Assembly Commission confirms that current Stormont’s rules, relating to office rental, contain an obvious gap, which it seems at least DUP MLAs in Ballymena have been exploiting.

“Amazingly, while Stormont properly caps the rent which can be paid, according to their valuation, they have no mechanism in place to coordinate with Westminster to ensure that there is no double claiming in respect of the same offices. Thus, as seems to happen, at least to some extent, with Church Street, Ballymena, MLAs can max out the amount they claim from Stormont for the office and, then, the MP can claim rent from Westminster for the same office, with no regard to the fact that the taxpayer may already be funding it to the limit of the Assembly valuation. Thereby, double funding by the taxpayer can result.

“Clearly, Stormont’s Independent Financial Review Panel (IFRP) needs to urgently close this loophole. I will be writing to them accordingly.”

Assembly Question:

“To ask the Assembly Commission what provisions are in place, where an MP is receiving rental assistance from Westminster for office accommodation, to ensure that an MLA does not receive rental assistance which would produce rental support, when combined with the Westminster payment, above the approved Assembly valuation?”
(AQW 39011/11-15)

Answer:
The independent valuations undertaken on behalf of the Assembly Commission are solely to verify and assess the appropriateness of rental values to be claimed from Office Cost Expenditure (OCE) for Members of the Legislative Assembly. These valuations are for properties which are used by Members in performing their Assembly duties. MPs are bound by the provisions of the guidance and rules issued by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). These are distinct from those issued by the Independent Financial Review Panel (IFRP).

The limit on the rental payments that can be made from OCE is set out in the IFRP Determination. The Determination makes no provisions for reducing or limiting the level of financial support that is available to MLAs in the circumstances where a constituency office is shared with an MP.

IPSA guidelines outline a very specific set of circumstances when an MP is required to submit a valuation in respect of the rental of a constituency office. The valuation report obtained by the Assembly Commission has no locus within the IPSA guidelines. Therefore, the amount that can be claimed from IPSA is calculated on a different basis to the support that can be claimed under the IRFR Determination by MLAs.