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SECRET investigations of alleged MPs’ expenses abuses prior to launching an official probe have been abandoned.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), the Commons expenses watchdog, yesterday ditched proposed rule changes that would name politicians only when probes are launched.
Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy said the idea was being dropped after heavy criticism.
“On the rare occasion when any MP is investigated by the compliance officer, we will continue our current approach of making that fact public at the outset,” he said.
The changes, put out for consultation in September, came under fire for making the Ipsa regime less transparent than the one it replaced in 2010, when the identities of those under investigation were routinely confirmed.
The cross-party standards committee warned that the plan could “tilt the balance too far from transparency” and the independent committee on standards in public life said it was “not consistent with the principles of openness and transparency which underlie the scheme.”
