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MPs must declare employed family members 'by April 1st'

28/02/2008

MPs should declare family members they employ at the expense of the taxpayer, a parliamentary committee has advised.

The House of Commons committee on standards and privileges wants relatives employed by MPs published on the register of interests by April 1st.

The committee's findings, which pre-empt a similar report from the members' estimates committee chaired by speaker Michael Martin, come after the scandal over Conservative MP Derek Conway.

Mr Conway has vowed not to stand for re-election following the revelation he overpaid his sons as researchers despite there being little evidence of their work for him.

Tory leader David Cameron has since urged his frontbench colleagues to declare any family members working for them, while Gordon Brown has adopted a similar stance with Labour MPs.

The standards and privileges committee says there is a "strong case" for greater disclosure of MPs employing relatives.

"We believe there should be greater transparency in relation to members' use of the staffing allowance where the terms of the employment might be influenced, or perceived as being liable to influence, by virtue of the existence of a personal relationship between the parties," the committee said today.

But its members state there is "[no] basis" for staff salaries to be disclosed.

MPs must approve the committee's recommendations before they are obliged to declare family members working for them.