London: Parliament is facing a new expenses scandal after the amount that every MP pays their staff, including their wives and family members, was accidentally leaked. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) is writing to all 650 MPs and their staff to apologise for a “serious data breach”.
Confidential data including the name of every member of MPs’ staff, their exact salary and the amount that they received in bonuses was inadvertently published online. MPs who saw the data published on Thursday night told The Daily Telegraph that the data could be “hugely embarrassing” for MPs who employ their wives, children and other “connected parties”. In 2009 The Daily Telegraph exposed a major expenses scandal, revealing the extent to which MPs were using the system for their personal benefit.
A review of the system subsequently recommended a ban on the employment of family members by MPs but this was rejected after a revolt by politicians. Ipsa was set up after the Telegraph exposed the scandal. According to official records, a total of 150 MPs - equivalent to nearly one in four - employ a “connected party”, at a total cost to the taxpayer of pounds 3.6 million (Dh16.5 million). Ipsa only publishes anonymised information about salaries and bonuses paid to staff.
The data, in three files, was published on Ipsa’s old website for four hours until the authority was alerted to the breach by Karl McCartney, a Conservative MP. It also published detailed information about each individual’s working patterns, holiday entitlements and information about support they receive for any disabilities. There are concerns that the data could have been downloaded and could be made public. It comes after the wife of the French presidential candidate, Francois Fillon, was placed under investigation over allegations that he paid his family thousands of euros for work they did not do.
One MP said the data included information about disabilities, with one staff member referred to as “100 per cent disabled”. Ipsa insisted that the information on disabilities related solely to support that staff received. Ipsa said it has referred itself to the Information Commissioner over the incident. Marcial Boo, its chief executive, said: “We take information security very seriously. We will be writing directly to all of those affected. I sincerely apologise to you for the distress this has caused.”
He said no information relating to the security of the individuals affected had been made public. Chris Bryant MP, a member of the Commons committee which approves Ipsa’s budget, raised concerns that the information is being held by the watchdog in an unencrypted form. An Ipsa spokesman confirmed three unencrypted documents had been published by accident when a staff member was updating documents.