Norman Baker MP Member of Parliament for Lewes constituency
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East Sussex,
BN7 2LJ.
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Public Expenses Bill
Local Lib Dem MP, Norman Baker, has this week published the full version of his Public Expenses Bill which will force public servants to account for the taxpayers’ money that they spend.
The Bill ensures that quangos such as the South East of England Development Agency, which was recently criticised in the national press for its lavish expenses, will have to publish a detailed breakdown of the expenses of its board members and senior management. The breakdown of expenditure would be similar to that currently published by the House of Commons for MPs.
A survey of a sample of public bodies conducted by Mr Baker late in 2007 when the Bill was first presented to the House of Commons revealed that there is still not a culture of freedom of information across the public sector. Only one public body out of the 26 surveyed said that they published expenditure of this kind.
Commenting on the printing of his Bill, Norman Baker said:
"Bodies such as SEEDA that are spending public money should be open and accountable for their expenditure. Recent revelations about the expenses incurred by the National Audit Office and Regional Development Agencies unfortunately suggest that many unelected bodies are being reckless with taxpayers money, precisely because they are not held properly to account.
"This Bill which has been printed this week will help to correct this by making all such bodies regularly and automatically publish their expenses. The days of junkets, luxurious freebies and spendthrift lifestyles at the taxpayers expense must become a thing of the past."