MPs and councillors expenses - our reporter takes a look at the local declarations of interest
Both Lee Dillon – the new MP for Newbury - and Olivia Bailey - for Reading West and Mid Berkshire - have now sworn themselves in to Parliament.
With all that comes a contract – and that involves some navigation of the standards rules – which includes what they must do if someone gives them a gift.
Along with the expenses register, it is a hardy perennial for political journalists. Remember Douglas Hogg, whose claim for the cleaning of his moat was one of the most embarrassing of the expenses revelations to hit the Conservative party?
And we have a Lib Dem administration bedding in at West Berkshire Council with many first time politicians.
Councillors on West Berkshire Council also have to declare expenses. And gifts.
A quick Google search brings up a modest spreadsheet from 2023.
Lee Dillon’s name pops up from his pre-MP days as a councillor.
He was declaring an invitation to a Dubai Duty Free International Royal Box Lunch. He noted its worth at £200.
Councillors have to declare any interests, gifts or hospitality they receive that could influence decisions they make.
But judging by the lack of openly available information via the web, it doesn’t look like anyone is likely to influence the sale of West Berkshire to the Chinese any time soon.
There are only three entries on this list. There is Lee’s rather pleasant sounding lunch. Another from Dominic Boeck (Con, Aldermaston), offering a fulsome explanation of a drinks and canapés do at Ufton Court Education Trust, which he values at £15. No super yachts.
And one from Billy Drummond (Lib Dem, Newbury Greenham) who declared two tickets worth £25 for the Christmas concert at Kennet School.
Further mining at the coal face of truth that is the West Berkshire Council website proves frustrating, with just fragments of documents easily available, and appendices missing from old reports, and so on.
Another record pops up from around 2015 – although this isn’t clear – and shows 16 separate gifts or hospitality offered - and the fact that 15 of those offered were accepted. It is of note that one member was responsible for half of the items declared.
Is there nothing more exotic than a couple of glasses of wine and a vol au vent?
Where are the crates of chateau Lafite-Rothschild offered for a favourable nod on the kitchen extensions of West Berskhire?
A report to this week’s Governance Committee at West Berkshire Council shows there was also an increase in the number of gifts and hospitality declared by officers with 73 declarations made during 2023/24, which is a considerable increase from 45 declared in the previous year.
The vast majority of gifts received were small token gifts with the total value of gifts declared being less than £1k, and the average value being £13.
The highest value hospitality received was a £200 dinner - again at Newbury racecourse, which was received by the CEO.
No small Caribbean Islands to report.
There were 14 declarations of gifts or hospitality received by councillors during the year 2023/24.
This represents a decrease on the previous year although it should be noted that declarations are frequently made of gifts or hospitality received that is below the value that requires that to be declared (ie £25).
Members have been reminded of the need to declare any gifts or hospitality received in accordance with the Gifts and Hospitality Protocol. This information is published on the council website – according to the Governance Committee report, although it seems to be buried. Probably with all the Chateau Lafite-Rothschild. On the super yacht.
The Bribery Act 2010 creates a number of offences where a gift or other benefit is given or offered, which may amount to an offence of bribing another person, and/or of being bribed.
Therefore, if members or officers are offered a ‘gift’ or other benefit by a third party, this could amount to an offence not just by the person offering the gift, but also by the member or officer concerned and by the council.
It is important to note that offences under this legislation can be committed by a person offering a gift or reward, even if the gift is not accepted.
But should we care as long as the wheels stay on the civic bus and our elected members and council officers avail themselves of the occasional averagely priced bottle of wine offered up?
Perhaps we should as trust in political institutions has declined across developed democracies.
In the US just last week - the Manhattan jury in Senator Robert Menendez’s corruption trial began its deliberations on a raft of federal charges in what prosecutors describe as a complex and years long bribery conspiracy.
Mr Menendez is accused of steering aid to Egypt, applying political pressure to preserve a friend’s business monopoly and meddling in criminal investigations in exchange for bribes of gold, cash and a Mercedes-Benz.
So by comparison, a decent lunch at the Racecourse pales into insignificance.
But when is a lunch a ‘no such thing as a free lunch’ lunch?
Does a bottle of Lambrusco and a bag of chips on the bench in Victoria Park rank on the ‘you must declare’ list?
According to Transparency International, when former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country following the 2014 Maidan revolution, Ukrainian citizens who stormed his Mezhyhirya mansion found a palace of cartoonish opulence with guilded bathrooms, a private zoo, and a floating restaurant in the shape of a pirate ship.
A good illustration of this extravagance is the $11 million he allegedly paid for a chandelier and his seven tablecloths worth a staggering $13,000.
So Billy Drummond’s £25 Christmas concert tickets seem really more like a public duty than anything beneficial or sinister.
As Mr Dillon and Ms Bailey will know, if they have read their House of Commons HR new joiners pack, MPs and Members of the Lords must declare certain interests.
The purpose is to provide information on any financial or non-financial benefit received by an MP or Member of the Lords which might reasonably be thought by others to influence their actions, speeches or votes in Parliament or influence their actions taken in their capacity as a Member.
As things stand, MPs are required to register any outside financial interests including travel, gifts and hospitality worth more than £300, with full details, within 28 days.
Parliament then publishes those details within a fortnight or so. But since 2015 ministers have benefited from an exemption, meaning they don’t register anything they receive “in their ministerial capacity”.
Such interests are meant to be published in the government’s “transparency returns”, which include no details, appear roughly every three months and are often late and incomplete.
Meanwhile, back in West Berkshire, the Governance Committee meets this Thursday. At the council offices in Newbury. Not on a small Caribbean island.
