Parliament to use GPS trackers so expenses watchdog can evaluate mileage claims
MPS are being asked to allow the expenses watchdog to track their movements by GPS signal in order to improve the accuracy of their mileage claims.
Training documents given to MPS’ staff and seen by The Daily Telegraph show a new option for MPS to enable GPS tracking on their phones to connect to their official expenses system. The tracking is designed to make mileage claims for cars more accurate and curb over-claiming, as well as to make the system easy to use for MPS.
Mileage claims are understood to be the part of the current system most prone to inaccuracy and abuse. In 201718 MPS claimed £993,775 on mileage in total, according to Ipsa.
A Tory backbench MP said: “There are no circumstances under which I would opt in to anybody tracking my phone, let alone Ipsa, which has a strong record of managing to balls it up. The idea they would be able to handle the information we would be providing them with competence is beyond parody.”
Sir Kevin Barron, the former chairman of the committee on standards, has opted in to have his phone GPS tracked to calculate mileage correctly – one of the first MPS to do so. He said it was a “sensible” option by Ipsa.
Asked if he had concerns it was a “Big Brother” measure, he said: “Potentially, yes, but then who isn’t tapping your phone now.” Sir Kevin added: “In the early Eighties when I came in here, there was a joke that the fees office had called a councillor and said, ‘We’ve estimated that when you go back home at the weekend, you’re driving round the city 30 miles an hour 24 hours a day before you come back on a Monday’. I’m sure that was a joke but every joke starts with something.”
The new system began last month and MPS have already been told by Ipsa: “You can use the GPS signal on your phone so the app records miles driven as you go. This can be useful if you are doing several small journeys over the course of a day and to get more accurate mileage. This will mean sharing your location with the app.”
Ipsa said: “MPS can choose to switch on the phone app to help them record the mileage, or they can make a note of it and enter it into a claim form, depending on their preference.
“The new system has only been live for a few weeks so we don’t have any data yet about which option MPS have chosen. They can switch the tracker off at any time if they have security concerns.”