Question

To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the Members Estimate Committee, when the decision to destroy documentation relating to hon. Members' expenses claims from before 2010 was reported to the House.

The House of Commons Commission (which was responsible for Members Estimate matters prior to the establishment of the Members Estimate Committee in 2004) agreed at its meeting of 21 October 2002 to implement a retention policy for financial papers, which would entail detailed claims, receipts, invoices and warrants being retained for three years after the end of the year of the transaction. This included documentation relating to Members’ allowances. The policy was incorporated into the Authorised Records Disposal Practice (ARDP) produced by the Parliamentary Archives and made available to Members and staff of both Houses on the parliamentary intranet in 2004. Decisions made by the House of Commons Commission and the Members Estimate Committee are published on the Parliament website.

Destruction of these records was paused in 2010 pending the conclusion of police inquiries, but was restarted on the previous basis in 2012 once legal proceedings were concluded. The only documentation destroyed in the last 12 months in relation to Members’ expenses has been background information to support claims, which was no longer needed after the 2010 general election when the House ceased to be responsible for expenses claims. This was done in April 2014.

While the original financial documents relating to MPs’ expenses were destroyed in compliance with the Authorised Records Disposal Policy (ARDP), more than a million documents and receipts, with some personal information redacted, were published online and subsequently updated. This information remains available on the Parliament website at: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/members-allowances/house-of-commons/.