Comment: Expensive MPs

Today's report from the review committee of the Speaker of the House of Commons shows much good sense - but it still falls short of what is necessary to restore public confidence in the arrangements for paying MPs.

The committee rightly recommends receipts for all expenditure, and random checks by the National Audit Office. Proper contracts and full job descriptions for MPs' staff are also welcome, not least for the staff themselves. Remuneration should ultimately be determined by an independent review body rather than by MPs themselves - but in the absence of such a reform, today's recommendations go some way towards removing abuses.

But the committee has fudged the issue of a second home allowance for MPs in outer London, a lucrative perk claimed by a number of MPs whose main homes are only a few miles from their west London seats. Everyone understands that MPs from outside London have to pay for homes both in their constituencies and at Westminster. But the allowance is unsustainable for outer London MPs, especially now that late sittings only take place twice a week.

Many in the Commons still fail to realise how bad their system of expenses and allowances - to say nothing of their pay demands - appear to the public. By no means all MPs are out to find "nice little earners" - but as a group they have yet to realise how urgent it is that they clean up these arrangements.