Standards

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Commons Chamber

14:43

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Lucy Powell)]

I beg to move,

That this House approves the Third Report of the Committee on Standards, Session 2024–25, HC 943, on Register of Interests of Members’ Staff, subject to any transitional arrangements agreed by the Committee on Standards, and amends the provisions endorsed by the Resolution of the House of 28 June 1993 as follows:

Members’ staff who hold a permanent photo-identity pass or have been granted a Parliamentary network account are required to register in the Register of Interests of Members’ Staff, subject to the thresholds set out in that Register:

“Any occupation or employment for which they receive over £470 from the same source in the course of a calendar year, if that occupation or employment is in any way advantaged by the privileged access to Parliament afforded by either a photo-identity pass or a Parliamentary Network Account;

Any gift (eg jewellery) or benefit (eg hospitality, services) they receive, if the gift or benefit in any way relates to or arises from their work in Parliament and its value exceeds £470 in the course of a calendar year; and/or

Any visit undertaken that has been paid for by a third party, if it in any way relates to or arises from their work in Parliament.”

The motion before us, which stands in my name, is moved on behalf of the Committee on Standards and relates to the Register of Interests of Members’ Staff. I welcome the Committee’s consideration of this matter and its report. If approved, the motion would widen the boundaries of who has to register their interests in the Register of Interests of Members’ Staff to include all those who have a parliamentary network account, as opposed to the current position, under which only staff who hold a photo-identity pass for the estate need to register their interests.

The Committee’s report, which is available to the House, outlines that the intention behind this expansion of the register is to reflect current working practices. There has been a significant increase in the number of staff who have full access to parliamentary information and materials without needing to be present on the estate. As the Committee’s report has outlined, that has resulted in more than half the staff employed by Members not being required to make a transparency return. I am grateful to the Chair of the Committee, the hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa), and to its members for all their hard work on this matter.

I know that the Chair will want to contribute to this debate to outline some of the background to the Committee’s work, and how it intends to implement this measure should the House approve it today. I can assure the House that the intention is to provide time for the Committee to make any transitional and technical arrangements necessary for the introduction of the change, and that details will be provided to all Members and staff. On that basis, I commend the motion to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the shadow Leader of the House.

14:45

[Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)]

I thank the Leader of the House for those words. I would like, in supporting the motion, to add one small cautionary note. It has been relayed to me, both by constituency staff and by other bodies, particularly the trade unions, that there is a concern that it might be possible to connect the names released in the official public register with the email addresses used by staff. I would be grateful if the Committee devoted some consideration to that concern, among the other issues that it will wish to reflect on further, to ensure that this ruling is as good and effective as possible.

14:46

[Alberto Costa (South Leicestershire) (Con)]

I, too, thank the Leader of the House for so quickly coming forward with a proposal to enact the sole recommendation of my Committee’s third report of this Session. The Committee agreed its report on 12 June, and here we are, barely a month later, seeking to put its recommendation into practice. The change we propose is straightforward and quite confined, but none the less it is a real pleasure to see our proposal make such quick progress.

As today’s motion makes clear, the Register of Interests of Members’ Staff—those whom we as MPs employ to help us in our work—has been in its present form since 1993. At that time, it was considered that Members’ staff had privileged access to the parliamentary estate and its facilities because they held a pass allowing them physical access. It was therefore those staff, and those staff only, who were required to register any relevant interest. Times have changed, as times are wont to do. The arrival in the intervening 32 years of such minor innovations as the internet and mobile telephony have enabled remote access to the estate in a way that was not envisaged when the register was first created. There has also been a substantial growth in the practice of working from home, and it is now entirely possible—in a way it was not then—for our constituency-based staff to have access to parliamentary information and facilities without ever setting foot within the precincts of the Palace of Westminster.

In a sense, we are acting quickly to catch up slowly on the way that work and working practices have altered. At the time of our report a month ago, around 2,000 passes had been issued to our staff, but around 4,200 members of staff had parliamentary network access. The change the Committee proposes simply means that all those who have such access will be required to register any interest arising from the list set out in the motion. It will be a small, but important, reinforcement of the transparency that the House properly seeks in how the parliamentary community does its vital work.

The change, as the Leader of the House suggested, will not happen instantly if the House agrees to the motion. The Committee has sought to include a transitional provision in the motion to enable the Standards Committee to press “Go” once the Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests has satisfied us that the IT solutions required, of which we have seen examples, are robust and ready to go.

I thank the shadow Leader of the House for his comments and the concerns that he noted in respect of the motion. The Committee is aware of the concern, raised via Unite the union and by some staff, that a new requirement to register interests will place their names on a public register, and the Committee and I have offered to meet staff representatives during the transition period to hear those concerns and also, if necessary, to consider whether ameliorations may be required, and I will report to the Leader of the House if that proves to be the case. I am grateful to Unite for raising those concerns with the Committee, and I am also grateful to it for saying that it approves of the principles behind the change.

With that caveat in mind, the Committee hopes that the new arrangements will be in place in the autumn, and, in conjunction with the Registrar, we will seek to publicise the change to ensure that all Members are able to encourage their staff to register as required. Let me again thank the Leader of the House for responding so promptly, and I thank the shadow Leader of the House for noting the concerns that have been raised by some. I trust that the House will feel able to approve these new arrangements.

14:51

[Lucy Powell]

I thank the Chair of the Standards Committee for explaining the background to the report. I have given him this commitment, both privately and publicly: I am keen to bring the recommendations of Standards Committee reports to the Floor of the House as soon as possible, and I hope that I have shown willing by doing that so quickly on this occasion. I also thank the hon. Gentleman for his reassurance to the shadow Leader of the House and to the trade unions—particularly Unite—which I know fully support the principles of this measure and the intention behind it, although I think that, as the shadow Leader said, there are some concerns about the creation of an entire register for staff members with nil returns that could perhaps be “farmed” by those trying to lobby people and gain access to them, with their names and email addresses out there for public view.

I look forward to the hon. Gentleman consulting and working with the unions in the coming weeks on how this can be delivered. If any changes are necessary, my door, as ever, will be open. I thank him and the whole Committee, and I thank the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for all his work with the Committee on this issue and many others.

Question put and agreed to.