Decisions 20 June 2011

Present:

The Speaker, in the Chair
Rt Hon Hilary Benn
Sir Paul Beresford
Frank Doran
John Thurso
Sir George Young (Leader of the House)

1.  FUNDING AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF INTERNATIONAL PARLIAMENTARY BODIES

The Commission agreed: 

• That grant-in-aid should be paid to the international parliamentary bodies on 1 July for the first two quarters of 2011/12 (incorporating the 10% reduction), minus any amount needed to reduce reserves to half the annual grant-in-aid, and subject in the case of CPA UK to the financial arrangements already made for the 2011 CPA Conference;
• That for BGIPU, in the light of the case put by its Chairman, the baseline before the 10% reduction should be £1,407,000, as the average of 2008/09 grant-in-aid allocated and the 2010/11 outturn;
• That funding for the third and fourth quarters of 2011/12 should be paid on the basis of a business plan of programmes and activities and of actual expenditure in previous quarters;
• That the bodies should be offered assistance from the House Service in preparing their plans;
• That revised financial memoranda should be agreed with the bodies, requiring detailed and costed annual business plans, regular reports of outturn figures in relation to those plans, and limits on reserves as recommended by Internal Audit; and
• That action on the matters raised in the letters from CPA UK and BGIPU should be remitted to the Management Board, with issues on which agreement cannot be reached being brought back to the Finance and Services Committee and/or the Commission for consideration.

2.  RESPECT POLICY

The Commission amended and agreed the House's Respect Policy.

3.  ASSISTANCE FOR MEMBERS OVER EMPLOYMENT ISSUES (MEC)

The Committee agreed that Mr Speaker should correspond further with IPSA on the matter of assistance for Members in respect of employment issues.

4.  MEMBERS' STATIONERY (Commission/MEC)

The Commission agreed in principle new rules on Members' stationery and postage, to come into effect on a date to be agreed by the Commission, and the Committee agreed that these should then replace the rules set out in the Green Book.  The Commission agreed to monitor the use made of House-provided stationery and postage under the new rules.

5.  DIAMOND JUBILEE AND OLYMPIC GAMES

The Commission took note of the paper.

6.  DECISIONS ON SITING OF WORKS OF ART

This Commission agreed to transfer responsibility for the siting of works of art from the Administration Committee to the Advisory Committee on Works of Art, and that the Advisory Committee should report such decisions to the Commission.  It accordingly amended the 2005 Protocol on the Administration Committee by leaving out paragraph C2.

7.  DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Commission/MEC will take place on Monday 11 July at 4.30pm in Speaker's House.