Toilet paper adds to MSPs' £10m expenses
David
Maddox - 23 January 2009 - Scotsman
MSPs claimed more than £10 million worth of expenses last year including toilet rolls and management guru guides, figures revealed yesterday.
The individual expense claims of all the MSPs for 2007-8, as published by the Scottish Parliament, came to a total of £10,250,471.
The sum was £10,815 less than the year before, despite the fact that it also included the amount given back to 42 former MSPs who either retired or were voted out of office in May 2007.
However, there were some eyebrows raised at some of the claims, in particular a five-fold increase in the party leaders' allowance from £5,776 in 2006-7 to £27,193 in 2007-8.
Much of the detail of this was hidden, but parliamentary sources said that most of the extra claims were down to support costs for former Labour leader Wendy Alexander and ex-Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen.
Much of it is believed to have been spent on staff, including Ms Alexander's official spokesman, Simon Pia, and £1,200 paid to economics professor Arthur Midwinter for a month's consultancy work.
A total of £2,555.44 was spent by MSPs on toilet paper and other hygiene products.
Enterprise minister Jim Mather was compensated for £255.44 of books he bought by management gurus. These included The Age of Turbulence, the life story of former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, and The Art of Hassle-Free Management by Philip Crosby. He also claimed money back for Juran's Quality Handbook, a work by Dr Joseph Juran that tries to combine Japanese philosophy with running a business; and The Origin of Wealth by Dr Eric Beinbocker, which claims to turn 100 years of economic theory on its head.
Lib Dem finance spokesman Jeremy Purvis said: "We now know why Jim Mather hasn't been speaking in parliament much. He's been too busy reading these books he's asking the taxpayer to pay for."
The spotlight also fell, however, on the Lib Dems, who had six of the top ten claimants.
Number one was party leader Tavish Scott, with £54,434, who has additional costs travelling to his Shetland constituency.
However, an SNP spokesman pointed out that Alasdair Allan, the MSP for the Western Isles, had claimed much less, even though he, too, has to fly back.
He added: "If the Lib Dems want to find £800 million of savings for a 2p income tax cut, maybe they could look at themselves first."
But a Lib Dem spokeswoman said: "Objective observers will see that our MSPs represent some of the remotest corners of the country. This explains the inevitable cost of getting to the parliament every week."
Jamie McGrigor, Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, came second with expenses totalling £44,564.
He was followed by Lib Dem Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) with £44,332 and Nicol Stephen, Lib Dem leader at the time and MSP for Aberdeen South, with £43,358. Another Lib Dem, Jamie Stone, came fifth with £42,220.
List MSPs for the Lothians came bottom of the expense list, cheapest being the Independent Margo MacDonald, who cost the public the least at just £1,960.
Highlands and Islands list MSP David Stewart was the highest claiming Labour MSP, at £41,474, while Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, was the highest claiming Nationalist at £37,348.
Cost of revealing ministers' expenses
TAXPAYERS are facing a bill in excess of £2 million to cover the cost of publishing full details of MPs' expenses, it emerged yesterday.
Harriet Harman, the Labour leader of the House, disclosed the rising cost of scanning about 1.2 million receipts submitted since April 2004.
She said the process was being delayed to allow MPs the chance to conceal information that would compromise their security or intrude upon their personal life.
She said this could include cases where a receipt included items such as Valentine cards for which they were not claiming, or shopping bills that disclosed the type of shampoo or hair conditioner they used. During a Commons debate to agree new rules on allowances, Ms Harman said the cost of the process had jumped from £1.2 million to "£2 million and something". She added: "It's an expensive exercise, there is no doubt about that."
But the cost was ridiculed by freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke, who won a High Court test case last year forcing the full disclosure of 14 sitting and former MPs' expenses. She said: "Putting something through a scanner does not cost £1 a page. All the things that are costing money are self-inflicted. There is no need for every single thing to be scanned in."
The names and the claims:
| Brian Adam £23,486 | Bashir Ahmad £18,922 | Bill Aitken £24,777 |
| Wendy Alexander £30,911 | Alasdair Allan £36,288 | Andrew Arbuckle £56* |
| Jackie Baillie £34,895 | Shiona Baird £614* | Claire Baker £15,875 |
| Richard Baker £22,213 | Chris Ballance £242* | Mark Ballard £40* |
| Scott Barrie £6,851* | Sarah Boyack £28,045 | Rhona Brankin £20,010 |
| Ted Brocklebank £28,616 | Gavin Brown £14,745 | Keith Brown £27,846 |
| Robert Brown £27,133 | Derek Brownlee £19,905 | Bill Butler £17,324 |
| Rosemary Byrne £1,861* | Aileen Campbell £23,790 | Dennis Canavan £512* |
| Jackson Carlaw £21,761 | Malcolm Chisholm £13,769 | Willie
Coffey £12,783 |
| Angela Constance £23,307 | Cathie Craigie £18,150 | Bruce Crawford £23,130 |
| Roseanna Cunningham £30,503 | Frances Curran £8,865* | Margaret Curran £20,596 |
| David Davidson £2,142* | Susan Deacon £397* | Nigel
Don £27,962 |
| Bob Doris £22,962 | Lord James Douglas-Hamilton £107* | Helen Eadie £16,170 |
| Fergus
Ewing £35,529 |
Linda Fabiani £18,746 | Patricia Ferguson £17,626 |
| Alex Fergusson £28,109 | Ross Finnie £30,259 | Joe FitzPatrick £24,498.48 |
| Lord George Foulkes £4,174.83 | Colin Fox £9,375.04* | Murdo Fraser £30,033.93 |
| Phil Gallie £3,190.81* | Kenny Gibson £37,348.55 | Rob Gibson £28,902.55 |
| Karen Gillon £34,757.24 | Marlyn Glen £23,746.31 | Trish Godman £23,669.09 |
| Annabel
Goldie £22,702.13 |
Charlie
Gordon £36,760.48 |
Donald Gorrie £182.64* |
| Christine Grahame £29,149.84 | Rhoda Grant £33,204.84 | Iain Gray £16,042.08 |
| Robin Harper £4,697.01 | Christopher Harvie £15,080.59 | Patrick Harvie £18,674.31 |
| Hugh Henry £24,508.92 | Jamie Hepburn £13,736.89 | Janis Hughes £153.27* |
| Jim
Hume £33,015.49 |
Fiona
Hyslop £11,376.95 |
Adam Ingram £27,236.23 |
| Gordon Jackson £4,243.62* | Sylvia Jackson £1,194.05* | Cathy Jamieson £25,555.15 |
| Margaret Jamieson £9,158.80* | Alex Johnstone £33,619.38 | Rosie Kane £9,158.34* |
| James Kelly £17,549.49 | Andy Kerr £30,317.73 | Bill Kidd £24,304.62 |
| Johann Lamont £17,284.72 | John
Lamont £39, 651.82 |
Carolyn Leckie £7,576.37* |
| Marilyn
Livingstone £20,153.17 |
Richard Lochhead £27,517.80 | George Lyon £1,250.39* |
| Kenny
MacAskill £23,981.73 |
Lewis Macdonald £38,454.03 | Margo MacDonald £1,960.73 |
| Kenneth
Macintosh £31,803 |
Kate MacLean £1,828* | Maureen McMillan £4,521* |
| Campbell Martin £4,053* | Paul Martin £26,611 | Tricia Marwick £20,809 |
| Jim Mather £32,134 | Michael Matheson £27,944 | Stewart Maxwell £25,873 |
| Christine May £1,103* | Liam MacArthur £39,687 | Frank McAveety £25,262 |
| Tom McCabe £18,860 | Jack McConnell £23,209 | Bruce McFee £125* |
| Jamie McGrigor £44,564 | Alison McInnes £37,375 | Ian McKee £9,232 |
| Christina McKelvie £15,102 | David McLetchie £18,659 | Michael McMahon £24,625 |
| Stuart McMillan £33,854 | Duncan McNeil £33,475 | Pauline McNeill £27,055 |
| Des McNulty £15,530 | Nanette Milne £34,392 | Margaret Mitchell £27,467 |
| Brian Monteith £396* | Alasdair Morgan £24,767 | Alasdair Morrison £4,720 |
| Bristow Muldoon £854* | Mary Mulligan £18,886 | John Farquhar Munro £36,827* |
| Elaine Murray £32,060 | Alex Neil £27,729 | Hugh O'Donnell £15,546 |
| Irene Oldfather £19,376 | John
Park £18,262 |
Gil Paterson £30,231 |
| Peter
Peacock £39,218 |
Cathy Peattie £17,525 | Dave Petrie £500* |
| Mike Pringle £19,798 | Jeremy Purvis £35,115 | Nora Radcliffe £5,999* |
| George
Reid £818* |
John Home Robertson £1,485* | Shona Robison £21,281 |
| Euan Robson £6,992* | Mike Rumbles £44,332 | Mark Ruskell £633* |
| Alex Salmond £22,108 | Mary Scanlon £36,648 | Eleanor Scott £185* |
| John Scott £36,341 | Tavish Scott £54,434 | Tommy Sheridan £4,196* |
| Richard Simpson £25,822 | Elaine Smith £25,536 | Liz Smith £19,442 |
| Iain Smith £23,667 | Margaret Smith £14,785 | Shirley-Anne Somerville £11,929 |
| Nicol Stephen £43,359 | Stewart Stevenson £25,090.47 | Dave Stewart £41,474.17 |
| Jamie Stone £42,220.28 | Nicola Sturgeon £22,770.83 | John
Swinburne £703.01* |
| John
Swinney £28,646.13 |
Dave Thompson £28,655.85 | Jim Tolson £20,599.09 |
| Murray Tosh £1,944.28* | Jean Turner £94.58* | Stefan Tymkewycz £4,083.74* |
| Jim Wallace £2,455.95 | Maureen Watt £17,712.77 | Andrew Welsh £33,917.42 |
| Sandra White £22,812.95 | Karen Whitefield £23,988.37 | David Whitton £27,715.84 |
| Allan Wilson £9,205.55 | Bill Wilson £16,821.65 | John Wilson £12,499.79 |
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Total
£10,250,471**
*Stopped being an MSP in 2007 **Includes above MSP expenses plus extra staff costs not itemised under individual MSPs because of data protection which prevents individual salaries being revealed. Greater detail at http://mspallowances.scottish.parliament.uk/MSPAllowances/default.aspx |
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£13,000 paid to MSP's son to build a website
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