Background: Kelly report into MPs' expenses
Updated on 04 November 2009
On the day Sir Christopher Kelly releases his long-awaited proposals on reform of MPs' allowances, Channel 4 News online has compiled a series of background reports on expenses.
Sir Christopher Kelly was drafted in by Gordon Brown to bring forward proposals for reform of the MPs expenses system in the wake of the scandal earlier this year.
MPs will not get to vote on his proposals. Instead it will be for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), set up in the wake of the expenses scandal, to decide on the new regime.
Sir Christopher has held meeting with the three main party leaders over the last week on his proposals, which have been extensively trailed in the run-up to the launch.
Below is a round-up of the events that started the report in motion and what we know so far.
The contents of the Kelly report into MPs' expenses, which will be published next week on 4 November, have been widely leaked. We list some of its recommendations.
Click here to read the list.
"MPs who have hated the introduction of much tighter rules on the declaration of outside interests – hours worked and pay – will hate one other feature of the much-leaked Kelly report.
"Sir Christopher Kelly isn't satisfied with the transparency plans already laid down and suggests going further."
Click here to read more blogs on the Kelly report.
MPs' wives and husbands will be under scrutiny next because Christopher Kelly's report is likely to ban them from their spouses' offices.
The recommendations have sparked a revolt among spouse employees who complain they are being unfairly targeted by the Commons expenses scandal.
Click here to read more.
The list of which MPs have been asked to repay expenses or provide more information to independent reviewer Sir Thomas Legg.
Sir Thomas treated any claim over £2,000 a year for cleaning and £1,000 for gardening as excessive and demanded any sums above that level should be returned. MPs had three weeks to respond to his letters.
Click here to read more.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg claims the worst offenders in the MPs' expenses scandal are more likely to be sitting pretty in safe seats. Is he right?
Click here to read FactCheck's analysis.
Gordon Brown is told to pay back excess house expenses, Nick Clegg pays back nearly £1,000 in gardening charges, and David Cameron must provide more information on his mortgage claims.
Meanwhile former home secretary Jacqui Smith has to apologise for breaching expenses rules.
Click here for Gary Gibbon's report on Sir Thomas Legg's review of the expenses that MPs claimed.
The MPs' expenses scandal made duck houses, moat-cleaning and "flipping" notorious earlier this year. Some MPs have already paid back expenses claims; many have also announced they will stand down at the next election.
But what were the most controversial claims? Click here to find out.
Parliament released an updated version of the Green Book – the official guide to what MPs can claim in allowances and expenses - in July.
For the full breakdown of the payments which an MP could claim on top of their salary click here.
Senior Conservative MP Alan Duncan says he was the first MP to publish receipts for expenses.
"I am in favour of total transparency...I was the first MP ever to publish my receipts, which started in 2003/04, so I'm in favour of transparency and these allowances have got to be got rid of," he said.
But were his claims as transparent as they seems? Click here to read FactCheck's analysis.
The full list of what MPs claimed for on their expenses, as revealed by the Daily Telegraph.
Click here to read more.
