MP's expenses and the FOIA

Our 646 MPs are an expensive bunch, aren't they?  MPs' salaries work out at £54.9m a year. A further £95.48m pays for MPs' expenses and staff which is a rise of £4.973m over the previous year.  Of the £95.48m, £57.9m goes on staff and their pensions and the remainder on allowances covering everything from mortgage interest on second homes to travel costs, and office and constituency surgery bills.  These cost almost all a rise on last year’s figures and above the rate of inflation which can only imply they are travelling more, hiring more staff and have higher mortgage interest rates to pay off.  You would hope that it also meant that MPs are doing more work for the people of Britain as well, but there is no available data on this unfortunately.

The most interesting aspect of all this financial data is, however, the news that the bill was £2.7m lower than estimated.  Usually, the year on year increases are even greater than above, believe it or not.   This is because MPs were not claiming as much under these allowances as the Commons finance department expected.  I wonder why?  Anything to do with the scrutiny they came under last due to the Freedom of Information Act?  And to think there are a number of MPs who want exemptions from this law - I wonder why?