MPs have little confidence in the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority

By Matthew Barrett
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The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which was set up as the regulator for expenses following the Parliamentary expenses scandal, has often been criticised by MPs for being too bureaucratic, remote from those it seeks to regulate, and for enforcing seemingly illogical rules.

IPSA's popularity amongst MPs has, however, not been comprehensively polled - until ComRes, in association with Total Politics magazine, polled 152 MPs from the three main parties. As Total Politics notes, MPs tend to think of IPSA as something that should be scrapped, or something that should be suffered because "the public holds no sympathy whatsoever for complaints". Neither of these attitudes is particularly positive towards IPSA, and the results of the polling reflect that. 

On the question "Do you believe that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority does a good or bad job?", the results were:

GOOD JOB
Total    Con    Labour    Lib Dem    Other
9%        8%    9%            10%           26%

BAD JOB
Total    Con    Labour    Lib Dem    Other
77%    82%    80%         61%           36%

A second question also demonstrates how MPs feel IPSA is actually worse than the previous system - to the question "Do you believe IPSA is better or worse able to fulfil the role of overseeing, administrating and regulating MPs’ expenses since May 2010?", the results were:

BETTER

Total    Con    Labour    Lib Dem    Other
34%    28%   42%         32%            31%

WORSE
Total    Con    Labour    Lib Dem    Other
48%    52%    44%         46%           44%