Latest news

9 February 2010

IPSA is currently looking to recruit staff in a variety of roles. For information on vacancies available please go to www.ipsa-recruitment.org.uk

4 February 2010

IPSA are pleased to announce that the location of its permanent home will be at Portland House, Bressenden Place, London, SW1.

7 January 2010
The IPSA consultation was launched on 7 January. For more details, and to take part in the consultation, please visit our consultation website

5 January 2010
IPSA Chair, Sir Ian Kennedy, today gave a speech at an event organised by the Hansard Society. The text of his speech can be found here (PDF 110Kb)

3 December 2009

The motion to appoint the nominated Chair and Members of the IPSA was approved on 2 December.

24 November 2009

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, today announced candidates for board members of IPSA. They are as follows:

Rt Hon Lord Justice Scott Baker (PDF 10Kb) (as a former holder of high judicial office); Professor Isobel Sharp CBE (PDF 10kb) (as an NAO qualified auditor); Jackie Ballard (PDF 13Kb) (as a former Member of the House of Commons); and Ken Olisa (PDF 13Kb).

The Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority agreed with the Speaker's proposal that the names of these candidates should go forward to the final stages of the appointment process. The selection of candidates followed an open competition carried out by an independent panel in which no Member of Parliament took part.

The appointment of the IPSA chair and members must be confirmed by the House of Commons before they are formally appointed by the Queen.

Rt Hon Lord Justice Scott Baker was a High Court Judge in the Family Division (1988-92), and then transferred to the Queen's Bench Division in 1992. He became a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2002. He has been a member of the Government Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation (the Warnock Committee) and a member of the Parole Board. He sat as coroner for the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed in 2007 and 2008.

Professor Isobel Sharp CBE is a partner at Deloitte LLP and a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh Business School. She was President of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland for 2007/8 and has served on the UK's Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Reporting Review Panel. Professor Sharp was awarded a CBE in 2009 for services to the accountancy profession. She was a member of the Independent Review of Parliamentary Allowances group which reported in March 2008 on the Reimbursement of Expenses for Members of the Scottish Parliament.

Jackie Ballard was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Taunton from 1997 to 2001. In Parliament, she was the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Women's Issues and on Local Government from 1997 to 1999 and from 1999 to 2001 was Deputy Home Affairs Spokesman with responsibility for the voluntary sector. She took up post as CEO of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf in 2007. Between 2002 and 2007 she was Director General of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Ken Olisa is a businessman whose career has focused on the technology sector. After working at IBM (UK) and Wang Laboratories, he founded technology merchant bank Interregnum and now leads Restoration Partners. Mr Olisa serves on the boards of Thomson Reuters, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC). He is Chairman of Thames Reach, a charity focused on ending street homelessness in London by 2012. He is a Warden of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, a Vice President of the British Computer Society and a member of the Government's Women's Enterprise Task Force. Mr Olisa was an inaugural member of the Postal Services Commission from 2000 to 2004, a board member with Open Text, and a Governor of the Peabody Trust for a decade until 2007.

10 November 2009

Sir Christopher Kelly and Sir Ian Kennedy held their first meeting today to discuss the way forward on reforms of MPs' expenses and allowances. It was a good and friendly meeting. Both Sir Christopher and Sir Ian are clear about the task ahead and the direction of travel. The CSPL's report contains recommendations that now require detailed work by IPSA. IPSA must also by law consult on the new scheme for allowances. There is a lot of work to do, and Sir Christopher and Sir Ian expect to meet regularly.

4 November 2009

Written statement from IPSA Chair designate, Professor Sir Ian Kennedy

The Speaker's Committee for the IPSA today ratified the Speaker's nomination of Professor Sir Ian Kennedy to be the Chair of IPSA:

"I am starting work immediately. I met the officials supporting me this morning and have given them clear instructions on the way forward.

Public faith in Parliament has been severely hit by the events of the last few months and I have no illusions about the scale of the task ahead. It will take time and effort to earn back the trust that has been lost. MPs must be able to fulfil their important public work, both representing their constituents and fulfilling their parliamentary duties. We must set out a framework which allows them to do so and which reflects the concerns of the public.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority must now establish a new system of MPs' allowances. It must be fair and effective, and also respond to the public's concerns. This work is already underway, and I and my colleagues will ensure that it is taken forward with rigour, pace and objectivity, listening all the way to the public.

The work of the CSPL, led by Sir Christopher Kelly, offers a clear set of recommendations. My colleagues and I will now take up the reins.

I have asked the interim chief executive and his team to set out how we will take this work forward as soon as possible - by preparing a consultation paper for approval by the IPSA's Board in early December. This will set out our proposed allowances scheme and how it will be administered. We will then consult as widely as possible.

The consultation will be wide but not time consuming. It will be free for anyone to comment, including MPs themselves. But let me be clear, this Authority is independent - of Parliament, Government and of any other particular interest - and we will be independent in drawing up the proposals and in implementing them.

The final scheme will be ready to put into effect early next spring, so we have a new scheme, with no association with the system that has been so discredited."

4 November 2009

Andrew McDonald has today had a letter to the Daily Telegraph published, responding to an editorial from 2 November:

SIR - The new body set up to establish the new scheme of MPs' allowances will not contain serving MPs (Leading article, November 2) . The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority will be made up of five members, including someone who has held high judicial office, a qualified auditor and a former MP. Apart from the last of those, no person who has been a member of the House of Commons in the last five years may be a member.

29 October 2009

First meeting of the IPSA Implementation Advisory Panel

On Monday 26th October, the first meeting of the IPSA Implementation Advisory Panel took place. The panel is made up of representatives of independent bodies that have taken a keen interest in issues around MPs' pay and expenses, and will be used to generate and debate ideas on how we design the new authority.

Attendees at the first meeting were:

Minutes of the meeting will be published on this website on Monday (2nd November).

28 October 2009

Andrew McDonald, the IPSA interim chief executive today wrote to all MPs to set out some information on the establishment of the new authority. Download the full text of the letter (PDF 35Kb)

13 October 2009

The Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor (Mr Jack Straw) laid a statement to Parliament yesterday (12/10) announcing funding for the implementation of IPSA:

Full text of the statement can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmwms/archive/091012.htm#hddr_26

This follows on from a statement to Parliament in September, which provided an update on the programme and announced the appointment of the interim Chief Executive.

Full text of this statement can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090916/wmstext/90916m0002.htm#09091618000019

10 September 2009

The Speaker has appointed an Interim Chief Executive to start work on the logistics of setting up the new organisation in order to get the Authority up and running as soon as possible.

The Interim Chief Executive will hold the post until a permanent Chief Executive is appointed.

Andrew McDonald, the Interim Chief Executive of IPSA, said:

"I am delighted to be joining the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I am looking forward to getting the new organisation up and running as soon as possible: there is plenty to do and I can't wait to get started."

"The new organisation will have a pivotal role to play in creating the new system for MPs' allowances."

The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, the Speaker of the House of Commons, said:

"We need to restore the reputation of Parliament by establishing a system governing Members' pay and allowances that commands the confidence of both the public and MPs."

"The appointment of Andrew McDonald as Interim Chief Executive marks a significant step in taking forward the implementation of the new Authority."

"We are also moving swiftly on appointments to the roles of Chair and Members of the IPSA. Advertisements for these key posts will appear on Sunday 13 September."