Albert Owen asked to repay £983.57 in expenses

    
From the BBC website:

Albert Owen (Ynys Mon), Labour: Overpaid £400 for food and £583.57 on mortgage payments.

Mr Owen said the review team had issues relating to mortgage interest in 2004 and 2008.

He said: "I complied with the request for full information and it demonstrated an under payment in 2004-05 and an over payment in 2008-09. Had this information been available to me at the time I would have supplied it and altered my claims accordingly.

"I have also paid back for subsistence/food which was claimed under the wrong heading of food instead of 'other items'. This followed advice I was given at the time. While I accept the decision I was disappointed that the review team was arbitrary and only concentrated on the over-claim, despite an under-claim of a similar amount in 2004-05. I did not appeal against the recommendation as I have supported the new rules including independent external audits."

Total £983.57 - paid.

The Druid has looked at Albert Owen's expenses previously here.


UPDATE: The room bookings on the Palace Estate files have also now been published online so we can see who MPs have been inviting to official functions in the Houses of Commons. Here's the data for Albert Owen:

• November 2004: A dinner for 38 people in Dining Room A on behalf of "The Industrial Pioneer" - a trades union periodical
• April 2008: A dinner for 13 people in Dining Room D for Anglesey Aluminium*
• March 2009: A breakfast for 16 people in the Astor Suite for the Aluminium Federation*

* It should be noted to Albert Owen's credit that he is the Chair of the all-party group on the Aluminium industry - not that it was enough to save the job losses at Anglesey Aluminium.
  

A look at Albert Owen's expenses

The Druid has been taking a look through Anglesey MP Albert Owen's expenses this morning. To be fair to him, based on the figures and receipts now publicly available on www.theyworkforyou.com and the Parliament website, Albert appears to have acted with some probity - certainly no moats, duck houses or even bath-plugs.

Over the period for which his actual receipts are available (up to 2004) his one luxury has been the purchase of a Sony 32" LCD TV and matching DVD Player back in July '07 for a total of £629.99. The Druid can just about live with that.

If one was to take issue, it would be with his food claims. According to the regulations prior to the recent expenses debacle, MPs were entitled to claim for "food - reasonable additional costs while you are away from home" as part of their 'Additional Costs Allowance' - without the need to provide any supporting receipts. As MPs can only eat once whether they are in their constituency or at their second home, the Druid struggles to understand the need for a tax-free food allowance whilst away from home.

You can see Albert's food claims broken down by year and month here (questions marks indicate months were data is not available) and decide for yourself if you think they are fair:

Click to enlarge

As you would expect Albert claims less, or sometimes nothing, whilst Parliament is in recess and the Druid is also glad to see that his average monthly claims have generally fallen over the years. However he is worried by the number of claims that seem to come in at just under the £400 maximum figure. Strange that.