Communications Allowance — establishment — 28 Mar 2007 at 15:20

The Majority voted to approve the report of the Members Estimate Committee[1], and to establish on 1 April a Communications Allowance,[2] for the purpose of assisting MPs with expenditure incurred in communicating with the public about Parliamentary business at the rate of £10,000 per year. This followed a preliminary vote the previous year.[3]

The Communications Allowance is for Parliamentary, but not party political or personal business and can be used to fund regular reports and constituency newsletters, questionnaires and surveys, petitions, targeted communications, contact cards, distributions costs including direct mailing and postage, and websites.

The type of information that is allowable includes information about the Member, information about Parliament, details of how to get in touch, on-line surgeries, details of surgeries, press releases about work as a Member, links to public service and other websites, website design and maintenance, and blogs.

The type of information that it should not be used includes business activities, fund raising, promotion of a political party, or political campaigning for or against anyone in an election.

Investigations into complaints about the use of this allowance are heard (and published) by the Standards and Privileges Committee.[4]

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con2 148 (+2 tell)077.6%
DUP0 3033.3%
Independent0 20100.0%
Lab262 (+2 tell) 2075.6%
LDem19 26071.4%
PC0 2066.7%
SDLP0 1033.3%
SNP0 3050.0%
UUP0 10100.0%
Total:283 188074.8%

Rebel Voters - sorted by name

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Danny AlexanderInverness, Nairn, Badenoch and StrathspeyLDem (front bench)aye
Tom BrakeCarshalton and WallingtonLDem (front bench)aye
Colin BreedSouth East CornwallLDem (front bench)aye
Paul BurstowSutton and CheamLDem (front bench)aye
Lorely BurtSolihullLDem (front bench)aye
Vincent CableTwickenhamLDem (front bench)aye
Quentin DaviesGrantham and Stamfordwhilst Con (front bench)aye
Lynne FeatherstoneHornsey and Wood GreenLDem (front bench)aye
Don FosterBathLDem (front bench)aye
Mike HancockPortsmouth SouthLDem (front bench)aye
Nick HarveyNorth DevonLDem (front bench)aye
Kelvin HopkinsLuton NorthLab (minister)no
Lynne JonesBirmingham, Selly OakLab (minister)no
Susan KramerRichmond ParkLDem (front bench)aye
Michael MooreBerwickshire, Roxburgh and SelkirkLDem (front bench)aye
Greg MulhollandLeeds North WestLDem (front bench)aye
Mark OatenWinchesterLDemaye
Alan ReidArgyll and ButeLDem (front bench)aye
Dan RogersonNorth CornwallLDem (front bench)aye
Bob RussellColchesterLDem (front bench)aye
Bob SpinkCastle Pointwhilst Con (front bench)aye
Stephen WilliamsBristol WestLDem (front bench)aye
Jennifer WillottCardiff CentralLDem (front bench)aye

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