How MSP's have milked the system

HOLYROOD yesterday became the first parliament in the world to detail every expense claim made by its elected members, a process that revealed how MSPs have claimed everything from a 42p pint of milk to thousands of pounds in taxi fares.

Tired of facing demands for the minutiae of MSPs' expenses from journalists, the Scottish parliamentary authorities decided last year to put everything on the parliament's website: every allowance, every receipt and every detail of every claim made.

The exercise cost 40,000 and puts Holyrood ahead of every other parliament in the world. Most administrations publish expense claims just once a year, and none - until now - release every single receipt and claim.

The result, which went live yesterday for the first time, is a massive 15,000 pages of material, covering just the six-month period from April to September last year.

Most of it is routine and fairly uninteresting, but there are some surprising and controversial details which will embarrass a number of MSPs.

For instance, the data showed that:

• Jamie Stone, the Liberal Democrat MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, was generous enough to buy a 42p pint of milk for his secretary on several occasions - but then he claimed it back from the taxpayer.

Mr Stone also demanded that the parliament reimburse him 4.62 for a pack of toilet rolls. But he only did this once, presumably because he thought this would last his constituency staff for the whole six months.

• Chris Ballance, a Green MSP, racked up 2,380 in mileage claims but only 39.20 in rail travel, despite the Green Party's condemnation of motoring and its support for public transport.

In his defence, Mr Ballance said he did not have a choice because there was "almost no public transport" in his area of Scotland - the "South" list region - and he has campaigned vociferously for more.

• Andy Kerr, the health minister, spent 50 of public money on the reference book Debrett's People of Today, possibly in an attempt to find out whether he was in it. Mr Kerr must have been pleased to discover that he does feature in the latest edition of the book, described as the ultimate reference book for the "movers and shakers of today".

• Only one MSP, Green Mark Ruskell, took advantage of the parliament's offer of paying 20p per mile for cycling, to claim 38.60 in bicycling costs around his area, covering 193 miles.

• MSPs spent 16,276 on taxis during the six months, but almost a quarter of this was spent by one MSP, Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP MSP for Perth.

Ms Cunningham said she does not drive and represents a rural constituency, so she had no choice but to take taxis on many occasions.

The total spent on expenses by MSPs was 2.1 million, but that figure is likely to rise to the usual annual spend of about 10 million by the end of the year.

George Reid, the Presiding Officer, said: "The Scottish Parliament is honouring our pledge to deliver transparency and accountability. The public have a right to know how their representatives are spending the allowances provided to help them do their jobs."

The expense claims will be updated on a quarterly basis and can be accessed on: http://mspallowances.scottish.parliament.uk/MSPAllowances/.