Members: Allowances

To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many editions of the Green Book have been issued since 2000; in which year each edition was published; how many copies of each edition were printed; what the cost was of publishing each edition; what consultation there was with hon. Members in respect of the changes made in the edition; by what processes such consultation were held; and which editions were distributed in hard copy to all hon. Members automatically. (287929)

Since 2000, revised editions of the Green Book were published as follows. Where known, information is included on the number of copies produced and the cost of production.

	Copies	Cost (£)
February 2001	n/a	n/a
April 2002	n/a	n/a
June 2003	2,000	13,135
June 2003 updated December 2003	¹—	n/a
June 2003 updated July 2004	¹—	n/a
April 2005	3,000	3,745
July 2006	3,000	n/a
March 2009	3,000	7,290
July 2009	2,000	1,936
¹ Intranet only

All copies except the two intranet only editions shown were sent direct to Members.

Since 2004 the Members Estimate Committee has been responsible for the Green Book and given authority for each edition. Since January 2009, responsibility for advising the MEC of changes to the Green Book has rested with the Members' Allowances Committee.

In respect of the Green Book agreed by the House published in March 2009, this was prepared by the then Advisory Panel on Members' Allowances in consultation with independent advisers and other hon. Members. It was approved by the MEC and agreed by the House in January 2009 prior to publication.

To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission for what reasons the council tax banding of hon. Members' properties was redacted before publication of information relating to hon. Members' expenses. (288259)

In July 2008, by order, Parliament agreed an amendment to the FOIA to the effect that any information that relates to the residential address of a member of either House of Parliament fell outside of the scope of that Act.

Taking account of this, editing of the claims-based allowances was done on the principle that the following information would be made available and all other information would be removed:

Name of Member

Allowance type

Date of claim

Value of claim

Goods or services purchased

Identity of supplier providing goods or services to offices (subject to certain rules).

Volume 496: debated on Monday 20 July 2009