Today’s publication of the Legg report has, naturally, pushed the whole expenses issue back to the top of the news agenda.

We have, of course, had a bit of look for ourselves. And given past history you won’t be surprised that our attention naturally gravitated towards the expenses claims made by our old ‘friend’, sparring partner and Conservative MP for Mid-Narnia, Nadine Dorries…

…and, also unsurprisingly, we’ve got a few questions for Nadine for which we’d really like some answers.

Dorries’ Website/Blog

You may, for example, recall that some time ago – May 2008, in fact – we raised a few issues with the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner about her personal website and blog.

At the time, the blog appeared to be funded from her parliamentary expenses and breached several of the rules governing the use of MPs websites when funded from the public purse.

In September 2008, a significant portion of that complaint was upheld, after it was investigated, by the PSC, and Dorries was forced to issue an apology and make a number of cosmetic alterations to the appearance of her website/blog.

What I didn’t say at the time was that we were somewhat less than convinced that the PSC had properly understood the full scope of our complaint. Some of the technical aspects of the site suggested to us then it was set up in a manner that was – and still is – inconsistent with parliamentary rules and the measures put in to ‘fix’ the problems raised in our complaint were far from adequate and failed to address those issues.

I’d like to stress that we’re not trying to shut her blog down. What we were after then – and now – is a clear assurance that her blog is not being funded from her expenses.

We find today that Dorries’s expenses records include three payments to her webhost, Acidity Ltd, in the years 2008/9 and 9/10, amounting to the princely sum of £3,434.87 and all claimed against her communications allowance.

Her parliamentary website has, however, has not been updated with any new content since the last entry in its news section on 13 Jan 2009.

In total, we count a total of 37 news items added to the site in the two years covered by these payments, none of which were made in the last year.

By way of a comparison. Dorries has added 12 blog posts to the site in the last month alone.

So the questions are:

- What exactly has Dorries spent more than £3,400 on in the last two years?

- Is the blog being paid for out of expenses?

Dorries’ Staffing Expenses

We are also more than a little curious about something we found under the heading ’staffing expenses’.

Between September 2008 and June 2009, the official records show a total of seven payments to a Midlands-based Public Relations and Marketing Company called Marketing Management (Midlands) Ltd, totalling £24,065, all of which are recorded under the heading ’staffing expenses’ as payments for agency staff.

In September 2008, Dorries also paid the same company, £6,544.75, although on this occasion the payment was booked in under the Communications Allowance as ‘general running costs’.

We did try to track down a website for this company, but it doesn’t appear to have one.

However, we did manage to track down a site for the man who set the company up, Andy Skinner of Andy Skinner and Partners, whose website provided us with this brief description of both his background and the relationship between the two companies.

On staffing allowance, the Green Book is perfectly explicit in stating that any expenses claimed must be “wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for the purpose of performing your Parliamentary duties”.

The staffing allowance is there to pay for things like secretarial and administration staff, researchers and assorted other bag carries, constituency case workers and, of course, the occasional spouse – or, in Dorries’s case, two of her daughters who’ve both found their way onto the parliamentary payroll, albeit at different times.

The only other individual we know to have been  employed by Dorries during this period is a Catriona Rowen of whom almost nothing is known.

What we can say here is that…

- Marketing Management (Midlands) Ltd is a marketing and PR company, and not an employment agency. It’s SIC code at Companies House is 7440, which is advertising.

- This company is, however, based in the village of Batsford in the Cotwolds and this puts it no more than about 10-15 minutes drive away from Dorries’ rented property in the Cotswolds.

This is the same property that Dorries has registered as her main home, which has allowed her to claim the second home allowance on her constituency home, a practice for which she’s already found herself in hot water

So, unless she’s failed to declare a member of staff on the Commons register of interest then it would appear that Dorries has either:

- been hiring own daughter via a PR firm based near her main home  (and the timing of the payments would indicate Philippa rather than Jennifer), or

- she’s hired the only member of staff she has who isn’t not related to her from a PR firm, and put it down on the official record as an agency?

In the latter case, that prompts questions about why she’s hiring staff from a PR company and what that has to do with her work as an MP?

Either way, this is also a company that trousered £6,500 from her Communications Allowance in the same month that the staffing arrangement came into effect.

One way or another, this all seems to fall a long way short of being an open and transparent arrangement, and that makes it one that Dorries need to clarify if she’s not to find herself facing yet another investigation into her expenses.

1. Liberal Conspiracy
   

   Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

2. Unity
   

   RT @libcon: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC – like did she hire her daughter via a PR firm?

3. Chris Paul
   

   RT @Unity_MoT @ChrispLOL – Nadine Dorries – Latest exes raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC – bears closer examination, methinks…

4. sunny hundal
   

   RT @libcon: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

5. Philippa Latimer
   

   RT @pickledpolitics: RT @libcon: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

6. Adam Rutherford
   

   oh ha ha, @pickledpolitics I can't wait for @NadineDorriesMP to respond to this: Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

7. CathElliott
   

   Liberal Conspiracy » Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cMqBA4

8. Holford Watch
   

   RT @Unity_MoT: @ ChrispLOL – Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC – bears closer examination, methinks…

9. Tim Ireland
   

   Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

10. Chris Paul
    

    RT @Unity_MoT: RT @libcon: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC – like did she hire her daughter via a PR firm?

11. Peter Taylor
    

    RT @CathElliott: Liberal Conspiracy » Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cMqBA4 – She is weep-worthy!

12. unslugged
    

    RT @bloggerheads: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

13. Unity
    

    @ ChrispLOL – Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC – bears closer examination, methinks…

14. Matt
    

    Excellent journalism. Very serious questions raised RT @libcon: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

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    RT @pickledpolitics: RT @libcon: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC #GoNads

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19. Nads
    

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20. Chris Paul
    

    RT @bloggerheads: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

21. Chris Paul
    

    RT @DorriesWatch: RT @libcon: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

22. Chris Paul
    

    RT @CathElliott: Liberal Conspiracy » Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cMqBA4

23. unslugged
    

    RT @dnotice: RT @libcon Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/bDSSqh

24. Andrew Tindall
    

    RT @libcon: Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/cJ5EZC

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    RT @libcon Nadine Dorries – Latest expenses raise more questions http://bit.ly/bDSSqh