MP watchdog sets sights on ministers

PARLIAMENT'S anti-sleaze commissioner has revealed that she could take on new powers to police ministers in the aftermath of the Mandelson affair.

Elizabeth Filkin, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, suggested yesterday that ministers should come under the same scrutiny mechanism as backbench MPs.

Ms Filkin's remarks are the clearest sign yet that the system of policing ministerial misconduct is set for reform in the light of Peter Mandelson's undeclared pounds 373,000 loan from the former paymaster-general, Geoffrey Robinson.

At present the commissioner can only launch inquiries into MPs who fail to declare gifts and directorships in the register of members' interests. The power to investigate breaches by ministers is held by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary.

Tony Blair is under pressure from MPs on all sides to change the system. Many want the UK to follow the lead of the United States and several European countries where governments are not allowed to carry out investigations into their own members.

Ms Filkin told BBC Radio 4's World At One that she believed the Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life was right to examine the regulation of ministers. "It may be that it would be a better arrangement to have investigations - when they are needed - to cover both MPs and what they do in relation to the House of Commons and indeed, what they do if they happen to be in ministerial positions."

Ms Filkin's remarks were welcomed by leading members of the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, who also called for independent scrutiny of ministers. Dale Campbell Savours, MP for Workington and a member of the committee, said that the proposal was "the only way forward". Rhodri Morgan, chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee, agreed that extending the watchdog's remit would end the current "farce".

The Neill committee will examine the issue next year.