Parliamentary

14
main review of MPs’ pay and pensions in
September 2011 as originally anticipated
when we set out our targets for the year.
12 In January 2012, we decided to consult
on increasing MPs’ pension contributions
in April 2012, in line with the changes
being made in most other parts of the
public service. Following consultation,
contribution rates were raised by 1.85
percentage points.
IPSA Fact
Early in 2012, IPSA raised MPs’
pension contributions in line with
changes being made in other parts of
the public service, and in line with a
motion of the House of Commons.
Assurance
13 As part of our regulatory responsibilities,
we have continued to maintain a rigorous
assurance process. Our Assurance and
Review Team monitored regularly business
costs and expenses payments, and carried
out a series of reviews including of payroll
adjustments, the provision of advice by
telephone and ‘not paid’ claims (ie claims
not passed for payment, for example
because they are outside the terms of
the Scheme or lack supporting evidence).
Assurance programme findings confirm
that error rates are low and, as outlined
below, that very few claims are being paid
when they should not be.
14 Internal audit services are provided by
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). During
2011-12 they conducted extensive audits
of IT systems and standing data held on
IPSA systems and held a workshop with
the IPSA Board and staff to consider
the IT environment. A detailed audit
was conducted of the business costs
and expenses system, focusing on the
processes for the payment card issued
to MPs and for simplified payments and
the key controls in these areas. PwC also
conducted a special audit of any overpayments
made to MPs as a result of
control deficiencies and made a number
of recommendations which have since
been implemented.
15 Given the evidence that we have
accumulated on compliance, during the
year we tested various approaches to the
validation of claims. In light of this work,
we have now streamlined our validation
processes to allow us to focus on areas
where risks are potentially higher,
while still ensuring that funds are used
appropriately within the framework of the
established rules. In parallel, we have
developed a data analysis programme
(for implementation in 2012-13) to ensure
our assessment of risk remains rigorous,
comprehensive and current. None of
this affects the principle that MPs are
responsible for ensuring the claims they
make for business costs and expenses are
necessary to support them to carry out
their parliamentary duties; those claims
are then processed by IPSA.
IPSA Achievement
Our regulatory and administrative
processes have ensured risk to the
taxpayer has been minimised – in
2011-12, just 0.45% of claims were
either paid in error or rejected.
C Objective 2: Workable and
transparent systems support the
schemes
16 IPSA pays the salaries of MPs and their
staff, and operates the system for paying
MPs’ business costs and expenses.
Our strategic goals in these areas are
that our systems should become more
streamlined and simple to operate both
for MPs and IPSA; and increasingly based
on payments not needing to be made
personally by MPs and then reclaimed.
IPSA Annual Report and Accounts 2011-2012