Ipsa board warns on independence threat
The outgoing members of Parliament’s expenses watchdog have warned the body’s independence is being threatened by changes to the appointment process. Four of the five members of the board of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority will leave in January after Speaker John Bercow decided to end the system of automatic reappointments to the board. Jackie Bollard, who is one of those leaving, warned: “[It] looked like there was not an acceptance of the vital importance of the first letter in the word Ipsa, I – independence.”