Decisions 21 June 2010

The Speaker, in the Chair
Sir Stuart Bell
Rosie Winterton
Sir George Young (Leader of the House) 

1.  2010/11 ADMINISTRATION ESTIMATE

The Commission:

• agreed that the budget for select committee travel should be reduced to £500,000 for the rest of the current financial year and £800,000 for financial year 2011/12;
• agreed to reduce the funding for the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the UK branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association by 5% for the current financial year;
• agreed that catering prices should rise in relation to the benchmarks for comparable venues in the manner proposed in the paper, subject to individual prices not rising by more than 100%;
• agreed a reduced Administration Estimate of £219 million for 2010/11;
• noted the work planned on longer-term savings; and
• approved a press statement, to be released after staff and Members had been informed of the Commission's decisions. 

2.  PROACTIVE PUBLICATION OF HOUSE INFORMATION

The Commission agreed in principle to a policy of publishing more House information proactively, subject to further consideration of, and consultation on, the detailed implementation. 

3.  JUNE PUBLICATION OF ALLOWANCES INFORMATION (MEC)

The Committee noted that, because of a technical problem, IEP scans for 2008/09 would not be available for publication on 24 June as planned, and agreed that the 24 June publication should go ahead with all the other material planned to be published on that day. 

4.  PROPOSED DEPARTMENTS OF HUMAN RESOURCES & CHANGE AND FINANCE

The Commission agreed to consider further the proposed creation of Departments of Human Resources & Change and Finance in place of the Department of Resources.

5.  APPOINTMENT OF CHAIR OF AUDIT COMMITTEES (Commission / MEC)

The Commission and Committee appointed Alex Jablonowski, the external member of the Management Board, as the Chair of the Audit Committees, and appointed Rosie Winterton, Shadow Leader of the House, as a member of the Audit Committees. 

6.  ACA REPAYMENTS BY FORMER MEMBERS (MEC)

The Committee agreed that the sums owed by the few Members of the 2001–05 Parliament who had not yet made the repayments recommended by Sir Thomas Legg should be vigorously pursued, and that those former Members should be informed as soon as possible that the House would be obliged to publish the amounts of any repayments not made and the names of the former Members concerned in the Resource Accounts for the Members Estimate. 

7.  ROLE OF THE FINANCE AND SERVICES COMMITTEE

The Commission agreed to give a clearer mandate to the Finance and Services Committee and to encourage it to act more as an arm of the Commission. 

8.  FIRE SAFETY WORKS AND BANQUETING BOOKINGS IN SEPTEMBER

The Commission agreed that, if necessary to enable planned fire safety improvements to be completed, the Terrace Marquee, Churchill Dining Room and Terrace Dining Rooms A to D should remain closed during the planned September sitting and the conference recess. 

9.  NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Commission/MEC will take place on Monday 26 July 2010 at 4.30 pm in Speaker's House.