But it gets worse. According to the House of Commons website http://www.parliament.uk, “The main role of this office is advising the Speaker and MPs on House procedure . . .and managing the Commons’ departments and services. . . The Clerk is also the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the House of Commons and therefore has senior management responsibilities. These include chairing the Board of Management, which discusses corporate issues; authorising contracts and spending, and accounting for the use of service resources for the Commons.”

Anyone who asks will probably be told that the Clerk lives on a rarefied plane, dealing with complex procedural matters related solely to the proceedings in the Chamber – that other departments deal directly with housekeeping, finance and so on, and that these grubby goings-on have nothing to do with such a grand person. But anyone with the slightest knowledge of the House will know that all other departments defer to the Clerk – if he (and it has always been a “he”) approves of something, it will happen; if he doesn’t, it won’t.

Has Dr Jack yet accounted for his explicit or implicit approval of the use of those services to buttress MPs’ expenses? Did he know what was going on throughout? If he did not, he is incompetent. If he
did, he should be held to account. Since no “Chief Executive and Accounting Officer” of a company could escape censure in the face of similar revelations, isn’t it time someone put some searching questions to this permanent senior official?