Independent Financial Review Panel

NI Assembly Commission misleads the Assembly, and the public

Pete Baker on February 15, 2016, 3:20 pm

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When the BBC reported the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission’s written answers to some ‘stupid’ questions from TUV leader Jim Allister on Friday they used the headline “Sinn Féin MLAs who claimed almost £700,000 in expenses ‘did nothing wrong‘”. There was also a report broadcast, “Sinn Féin cleared in expenses investigation“. The NI Assembly Commission is chaired by the Speaker, currently Sinn Féin’s Mitchel McLaughlin, and consists of one MLA from each of the Executive parties – who have a vote …

Within a constituency, are each MLA’s mileage claims of a similar size? No …

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 8, 2015, 1:32 pm

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Annex B of the Independent Financial Review Panel’s most recent consultation document [the content of which I blogged about earlier] contains a table showing each MLA’s mileage expense claims for 2013/14 and 2014/15, along with the distance of their constituency office from Parliament Buildings. I’ve charted the 2014/15 mileage claims of the MLAs to help visualise the patterns and outliers. Note: MLAs receive a standard rate of Motor Mileage Allowance for business travel by car. The rates that may be …

Is the Independent Financial Review Panel right to interfere with political process as well as pay?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 6, 2015, 1:11 pm

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The three-person Independent Financial Review Panel was established in July 2011. It sets the pay, allowances and pensions of members and office holders of the NI Assembly. A series of consultation papers has steered the panel’s policies on topics including MLAs’ Pension Scheme, Employment of MLAs’ Staff, Prior disclosure of Interests and MLAs’ Salaries and Office Holders Allowances. Elements of the panel’s final consultation in this series are proving particularly newsworthy as they examine travel allowances, expenses around office costs …

Will the curb on MLA expenses spell the end of constituency offices?

Mick Fealty on March 16, 2012, 4:51 pm

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So MLAs get an 11% rise in salary, not from themselves, but from an Independent Financial Review Panel. Thus the DUP and Sinn Fein are arguing that it is wrong, (though don’t hold your breath for any of them to hand it back) because for once it was not them who were responsible for the decision. As Liam Clarke notes, this is way better than anyone out in the real world is likely to get for sometime to come. But …