Members: Conduct

(asked on 17th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House of Commons, whether he has plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of further methods of placing fixed constraints on the amount of time that hon. Members spend on outside work.


Answered by
Mark Spencer Portrait
Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 23rd March 2022

The regulation of the amount of time that Members spend on outside work is a matter for the whole House to consider on a cross-party basis. The Standards Committee is likely to bring forward recommendations on this as part of its inquiry into the Code of Conduct and we await the Committee’s final report with interest.

The Government firmly believes that an MP’s primary job is and must be to serve their constituents and represent their interests in Parliament. That is why the Government brought forward an amendment (which the House approved on 17 November 2021) to support the introduction of limits on Members undertaking outside work. These were that MPs should be prohibited from any paid work to provide services as a parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant and that outside work should be undertaken only within “reasonable limits”.

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