A very interesting Public Administration Select Committee (the committee that looks into standards in public life) today. We were questioning the Chairman of the Committee for Standards in Public Life, Sir Christopher Kelly. This august body looks at issues like lobbying, appointments and other issues that affect public life in Parliament and Government. I asked our witness, why the Committee needed to spend £260,000 per year for three years, on opinion polls. I argued that not was this was a huge waste of taxpayers' money, but also unecessary. The reply I got from Sir Christopher, was that he wasn't there when the decision had been made to spend nearly £900,000 on polling, therefore could not tell me why it had occurred. However, he had cut this spend to over £46,000 last year!
But, for a Public Body, to spend taxpayers cash in this way- just on opinion polls - even at £46,000 is clearly questionable. Not only should there be an inquiry into the original £260,000 spend and why it occurred, but also a ban on paid polls completely. After all, the newspapers do polling for free.
by Robert Halfon - Working Hard for Harlow.
