Comments on: Directory of MPs’ staff http://heatherbrooke.org/2006/directory-of-mps-staff/ Heather Brooke is an award-winning writer, journalist and activist Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:17:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Anon http://heatherbrooke.org/2006/directory-of-mps-staff/comment-page-1/#comment-1055 Anon Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:13:41 +0000 http://www.yrtk.org/2006/directory-of-mps-staff/#comment-1055 As a former parliamentary researcher I do not object to staff lists for MPs being made publicly available. Indeed the Register of Members’ Secretaries and Researchers Interests has been online for a number of years. (Although might be an idea to tighten up the registration threshold for journalists as these are considerably higher than those for researchers, £600 opposed to £300 for researchers). I do object to salary details being made available unless the same rule is applied for all public servants and all private sector employees working on government contracts. I am pleased that, according to today's Telegraph, the Commissioner would heave ruled in favour of the Speaker on the salaries issue. The working for an mp website does given information relating to pay bands for MPs staff (http://www.w4mp.org/html/library/salaries/general.asp) As a former parliamentary researcher I do not object to staff lists for MPs being made
publicly available. Indeed the Register of Members’ Secretaries and Researchers Interests has been
online for a number of years. (Although might be an idea to tighten up the registration
threshold for journalists as these are considerably higher than those for researchers, £600
opposed to £300 for researchers).
I do object to salary details being made available unless the same rule is applied for all
public servants and all private sector employees working on government contracts. I am
pleased that, according to today’s Telegraph, the Commissioner would heave ruled in favour of
the Speaker on the salaries issue.
The working for an mp website does given information relating to pay bands for MPs staff (http://www.w4mp.org/html/library/salaries/general.asp)

]]> By: heather http://heatherbrooke.org/2006/directory-of-mps-staff/comment-page-1/#comment-1054 heather Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:45:49 +0000 http://www.yrtk.org/2006/directory-of-mps-staff/#comment-1054 Hi Matthew, I've been in touch with <a href="http://www.flourish.org" rel="nofollow">Francis</a> at <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com" rel="nofollow">TheyWorkForYou </a>about keeping this list updated. It is scraped from the Register Of Interests of Members' Secretaries and Research Assistants so some staff may be funded in other ways. Unfortunately, because of the Speaker's certificate blocking disclosure of those staff paid for from the public purse, this is all we have to to go on. Regards, Heather Hi Matthew,
I’ve been in touch with Francis at TheyWorkForYou about keeping this list updated. It is scraped from the Register Of Interests of Members’ Secretaries and Research Assistants so some staff may be funded in other ways. Unfortunately, because of the Speaker’s certificate blocking disclosure of those staff paid for from the public purse, this is all we have to to go on.
Regards,
Heather

]]> By: Matthew http://heatherbrooke.org/2006/directory-of-mps-staff/comment-page-1/#comment-1053 Matthew Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:00:51 +0000 http://www.yrtk.org/2006/directory-of-mps-staff/#comment-1053 David Cameron has 17 staff, not 18 - your COUNT is including David Cairns' one staff member. And of those 17, 8 are employed by the Conservative Party - I don't know if that means they're still paid by the taxpayer or not. The Leader of the Opposition gets an extra £595,999 (for this financial year) to run their office - "a separately identified sum specifically for the office of the Leader of the Opposition, in recognition of the constitutional role played by, and thus the specific demands on, the holder of that post"; David Cameron's Staffing Allowance claim for 2004/05 was £73,882. Also, there are other things, such as Caroline Spelman's research assistant's salary being paid for by CARE: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10559. Some people can't open Excel spreadsheets - if you want, I can stick this data up on TheyWorkForYou in HTML? :) I can also add a monitor so that if the list changes, our list will update. David Cameron has 17 staff, not 18 – your COUNT is including David Cairns’ one staff member. And of those 17, 8 are employed by the Conservative Party – I don’t know if that means they’re still paid by the taxpayer or not. The Leader of the Opposition gets an extra £595,999 (for this financial year) to run their office – “a separately identified sum specifically for the office of the Leader of the Opposition, in recognition of the constitutional role played by, and thus the specific demands on, the holder
of that post”; David Cameron’s Staffing Allowance claim for 2004/05 was £73,882.

Also, there are other things, such as Caroline Spelman’s research assistant’s salary being paid for by CARE: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10559.

Some people can’t open Excel spreadsheets – if you want, I can stick this data up on TheyWorkForYou in HTML? :) I can also add a monitor so that if the list changes, our list will update.

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