Details of MPs expenses published

STV

Details of MPs' expenses claims were finally published by the House of Commons on Thursday - more than a year after the High Court ordered their publication and weeks after they were leaked to the Daily Telegraph.

Revelations about the claims have forced a series of MPs to announce their resignations in the past month.

Junior Treasury minister Kitty Ussher became the latest scalp on Wednesday night when she quit the Government following allegations that she avoided paying capital gains tax by "flipping" her second home.

Thursday’s publication covers printed documents and receipts relating to MPs' claims between 2004/05 and 2007/08 for a series of parliamentary allowances, but with many personal details blacked out.

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RESOURCES

See how MPs from Scotland fared

List of MPs expenses in full

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These include claims under the £24,000-a-year Additional Costs Allowance, which reimburses MPs for the cost of having to maintain a second home while serving at Westminster; the £22,000 Incidental Expenses Provision, which pays for running an office; and the £10,400 Communications Allowance, which covers the cost of newsletters and websites to inform constituents about their activities; as well as details of expenditure on stationery and postage.

Gordon Brown's Expense Sheet

Gordon Brown's blacked out expense sheet

The expenses claims and supporting receipts published on Thursday by the Commons authorities feature large blacked out areas where it is not always clear what has been obscured.

There are no addresses for MPs' homes, meaning it would have been virtually impossible to identify so-called flipping, whereby MPs switch the designation of their second properties to maximise their claims.

Also missing are the names and details of people and companies to whom payments were made using expenses. Correspondence between MPs and the Commons Fees Office has also been removed.

MARTIN AND DEVINE

The publication of the expenses comes a day after Michael Martin used his farewell speech as Speaker to attack failures to reform the MPs' allowances system.

Mr Martin, the first Commons speaker to be ousted in over 300 years, gave his address after presiding over his last Prime Minister's Questions in the job. The 63-year-old Glaswegian told MPs it was "deeply disappointing" that MPs did not vote to change the allowances system when they had the opportunity in 2008.

His resignation has forced a by-election in his Glasgow North East constituency. A new Speaker will be elected on Monday from a field of 10 candidates. Meanwhile, Jim Devine is still considering his future after he was sensationally ousted by the Labour Party.

Mr Devine, 56, was deselected by the party after an expenses probe. He now faces the choice of remaining as MP for Livingston until the next general election or quitting early and triggering a by-election.