From : BBC News - Expenses body to cost six times more than MPs' payback

The Parliamentary body set up to police expenses will cost about six times the amount MPs have been ordered to repay, the BBC has learned.

Figures show the annual cost of running the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority will be £6.5m.

Last week, MPs were told to pay back £1.12m of their second home expenses after an audit of their claims dating back to 2004 by Sir Thomas Legg.

Meanwhile, three MPs and a Tory peer are facing charges over their expenses.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has replaced the Commons Fees Office, and most of its £6.5m budget is expected to go on recruiting about 80 staff. Its chairman Sir Ian Kennedy will be paid a salary of £100,000.

The BBC's political correspondent Norman Smith said this will come on top of the £1.1m cost of Sir Thomas Legg's audit and the inquiry by the standards watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly which cost £400,000.

"That inquiry is now being re-examined by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority prior to implementing a new expenses regime," he added.

Appeals process

Last Thursday, Sir Thomas Legg announced that MPs should repay £1.12m of their second home expenses.

He had recommended that 389 MPs should repay £1.3m but that was cut after an appeals process.

Many MPs complained that Sir Thomas had retrospectively applied limits to claims for gardening and cleaning that were not in place at the time.

As a result of the appeals, the number of MPs ordered to repay money was reduced from 389 to 372 and £180,000 was cut off the total.

The report said £800,000 had been repaid already - some unconnected to Sir Thomas's demands - since April 2009, the month before the scandal broke.

There have been several inquiries related to MPs' expenses.

The independent committee on standards in public life - chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly - set out recommendations on how the system should change in the future.

The raft of proposals included banning MPs for claiming towards mortgage payments on second homes and from employing relatives.

Sir Ian Kennedy, the IPSA chairman, has said he hopes to get a new system in place by the start of the next Parliament.

The three Labour MPs facing criminal charges in relation to their expenses are Elliot Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor.

Tory Peer Lord Hanningfield will also be charged under the Theft Act. All four have said they denied any charges

I am at a loss to understand why it should cost this much, other than it is expenditure by the public sector and therefore profligate! This figure suggests that it will cost an average of £10,000 per MP per annum to monitor their expenses.

Put it out to private sector tender and save seventy percent of it!!!