House of Lords Statement on Sunday Times story
Following the publication of a story by The Sunday Times that suggested House of Lords allowance claims were ‘spiralling out of control' a spokesperson for the House of Lords said:
“The increase in the costs of House of Lords allowances in the 2018/19 financial year is largely due to a 25% increase in the number of days that the House sat, rising from 129 in 2017/18 to 161 in 2018/19. As Members of the Lords can generally only claim allowances for days they attend the House any increase in sitting days is likely to produce an increase in the cost of Member's allowances. The number of sittings days was lower in 2017/18 than usual due to the General Election.
“The House of Lords is a busy and effective revising chamber which does an important job scrutinising legislation and holding the Government to account. In the period covered by the Sunday Times article it made 2,513 changes to legislation; members tabled 8,072 written questions and 153 reports were produced by committees.”
