MSP Margaret Smith defends expenses claim for one-mile journey between schools

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 10:14

A CITY MSP put in a mileage claim for 40p for travelling just one mile between neighbouring schools.

Edinburgh West Liberal Democrat Margaret Smith submitted the claim after going to the linked Stewart's Melville College and Mary Erskine School.

Ms Smith had the largest expenses of any of the Lothians MSPs when details of all Holyrood politicians' claims were published yesterday.

The overall bill for all MSPs' expenses and staff costs was up 8.7 per cent from last year to 10.96 million.

The total expenses claimed by Lothians MSPs jumped by 20 per cent – from 255,400 in 2007-8 to 306,538 last year.

Included in Ms Smith's mileage claims is an entry: "Mary Erskine's to Stewart's Melville – 1 mile – 0.40."

The MSP today defended her 40p claim, saying it could simply have been included in a larger claim for going to and from the school visit and no-one would have noticed.

She said: "It is just the way it has been itemised. I went to Mary Erskine's and spent a few hours there and another part of the day at Stewart's Melville being shown round by the kids.

"They are two different campuses in two different locations, albeit not very far away from each other."

She also made separate claims for 1.20 for the three miles from her home to Mary Erskine and a further 1.20 for the three miles from Stewart's Melville to parliament.

Ms Smith's total claim of nearly 28,000 was dramatically up on the previous year's 14,785 but she said her place at the top of the spending league was probably due to extra expense to improve her website and the way staff costs were counted.

She said she had also spent more than usual sending letters to people in South Queensferry to keep them informed about the new Forth crossing.

She said the pooling of staff costs by Lib Dem MSPs meant her expenses looked bigger than some other people's because these amounts were published against individual MSPs whereas other staff costs were not.

Lothian's second highest claimer for last year was Edinburgh Central Labour MSP Sarah Boyack with 26,126 and third was SNP Livingston MSP Angela Constance with 25,719.

The lowest expenses bill once again came from independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald, who claimed just 2,354.