MPs found guilty of sleaze to be fined under proposed reforms

MPs who are found guilty of sleaze should face fines as part of package of reforms to increase public confidence in Parliament, an influential inquiry has recommended.

The Wicks Committee on Standards in Public Life also proposed the House of Commons' Standards Commissioner have greater powers to force MPs to co-operate and to call witnesses to give evidence.

In a report making 27 recommendations, the committee urged the creation of an investigatory panel headed by a top lawyer to handle serious or contentious complaints.

The body would include two senior MPs from different parties and have the power to appoint a barrister to cross examine witnesses.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards should in future be defined as an "office holder" of the Commons who was paid for but not "employed" by Parliament, and be appointed for between five and seven years.

The commissioner would have the power to force MPs to co-operate with investigations about their conduct or financial affairs. Ministers under investigation for sleaze would also be expected to co-operate.

The inquiry recommended the Commons standards committee, which makes judgements about whether MPs are guilty of improper conduct, should no longer be dominated by one political party.

The proposals were drawn up after the outcry over the treatment of Elizabeth Filkin, the former standards commissioner who was forced to re-apply for her own job after rigorously investigating MPs including Keith Vaz, a former Europe Minister.

Sir Nigel Wicks, the chairman of the committee, said his proposals for reform would ensure a system of regulation in the House that delivered "public confidence while carrying the confidence of the House itself".

MPs are expected to debate the proposals in the next two months and are likely to approve most of them. However, some may object to the suggestion that MPs under investigation should get taxpayers' money to hire a lawyer.

The proposals were welcomed by senior MPs, including Sir George Young, the chairman of the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges, who said that he would "look constructively at the proposals."

Archy Kirkwood, spokesman for the House of Commons Commission, which appoints the standards commissioner, said the report was "most helpful". Mr Kirkwood added: "It recognises the sovereign position of the House of Commons and that the fundamental structure of regulation is sound."

But the former MP Martin Bell, a staunch supporter of Ms Filkin, said sitting on the Commons Standards Committee had convinced him of the need for a fully independent system. "Parliamentary self-regulation has failed ... It should be taken outside the club of the House of Commons," he said.