Published: Thursday, 15th March, 2007 12:00
MSPs to repay cash after expenses slip-up
By Brendan Rooney
Print Article
LOCAL MSPs have been forced to pay back thousands of pounds in tax after a blunder in their expenses.
Politicians are facing whopping bills after Scottish Parliament chiefs announced calculations had gone awry and there would be a massive claw-back.
Worst hit looks like Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Andrew Arbuckle, who has been left fuming after calculating he could face a £6000 tax bill.
Top politicians across the country have been affected by the mistake, which means they have not paid tax on millions of pounds in motoring expenses dating back two years.
Dunfermline East MSP Helen Eadie is facing a £740 payment but Dunfermline West MSP Scott Barrie, a regular public transport user, has been hit for only £41.
Mr Arbuckle, who earns £53,000 a year, says his sum is so high because he has to cover a wide constituency from his home in Newburgh.
The Lib-Dem said, “I could be facing a bill for £6000. The more I think about it the more annoyed I get.
“This is a private company contracted by the Parliament that has caused this mistake. I’m very annoyed at the company that got me in this mess.
“I accept it has to be paid, it is just that it caught us unaware.”
Mrs Eadie, who lives in Dalgety Bay, said, “It’s £740 I have to pay back. I can imagine any worker in this country would be really upset.
“And the fact is that when it is another person’s fault there usually is a facility to repay the money in stages, but here they want MSPs to pay it in one lump sum and I think that’s completely unreasonable.”
The Labour MSP also says she needs to use a car to cover her constituency.
She added, “I do 14 surgeries a month. It is not just a question of driving to the parliament, I’m out and about.
“It is much more related to the nature of the constituency that I have.”
Fellow Labour MSP Scott Barrie, an avid train user who lives in Dunfermline, got off more lightly.
He said, “It just shows it pays to use public transport. It’s those who use their cars all the time that have been hammered.”
The error was made by Premier Envoy Ltd, which provides the computer system that identifies and calculates the tax.
General manager Graham Whitehouse said, “The error was only discovered in February 2007 by the parliament during part of an unrelated exercise it carried out.
“As soon as we were alerted, we agreed immediately to take action to correct the issue.
“We are concerned that this was not identified during our testing and apologise for the inconvenience caused to MSPs.”
A spokesman for the parliament said, “We accept Premier Envoy Ltd’s apology for the undoubted inconvenience that this will cause members, but the tax liability stands and has to be met by individual MSPs.”
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