IPSA’s Chair

Date published: 25 July 2019

The Chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Ruth Evans, has announced that she is resigning in October 2019 after over three years at IPSA, in order to focus on other non-executive roles.

Ruth Evans said:

“It has been a tremendous honour for me to lead IPSA since June 2016 and to contribute to rebuilding public confidence that MPs are spending taxpayers’ money appropriately to help them to do their job. In particular, I am pleased that the rules around MPs recruiting family members were modernised. I am grateful to the Speaker and to MPs for engaging positively with IPSA as their regulator, and to everyone at IPSA for their hard work on behalf of taxpayers.

“I leave IPSA a stronger organisation that engages in constructive dialogue with Members of Parliament and their staff. I have confidence that IPSA will continue to play an effective role in support of parliamentary democracy and I also have no doubt that the UK will continue to lead the world in this area of regulation.

“I will be resigning as IPSA’s Chair in order to focus on my other non-executive roles, including chairing a new initiative to combat fraud in the payments made by UK consumers. Over the last three years, IPSA has brought in a major revision of the rules that apply to MPs’ expenditure on their parliamentary and constituency activity, helping to balance IPSA’s responsibilities both to support MPs financially and to provide assurance to the public about the money spent by MPs on their work.

“In that review, we ensured that the rules are simpler to understand and comply with, that MPs’ workplaces are further professionalised and that IPSA’s Scheme of MPs’ Business Costs encourages diversity and gives priority to supporting MPs with families and other dependants.

“I’m leaving after we have seen through the introduction of IPSA Online that will lead to significant improvements in the support for MPs.”

ENDS

For more details contact IPSA's Press Office: communications@theipsa.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

The responsibility for appointing a new Chair is with the Speaker’s Committee of the House of Commons. They will be advertising for a new permanent Chair after the summer.

IPSA was created in 2009 by the Parliamentary Standards Act. The Act was amended in 2010 by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act. Together they gave IPSA three main responsibilities:

To regulate MPs’ business costs and expenses.
To determine MPs’ pay and pension arrangements.
To provide financial support to MPs in carrying out their parliamentary functions.

IPSA is independent of Parliament and the Government. This allows us to take decisions about the rules on business costs and expenses and on MPs’ pay ourselves, without interference.

The Scheme of MPs' Business Costs and Expenses ('the Scheme') governs what MPs can and cannot claim for. We review our rules regularly and consult the public when we do so.