Blog: Unglamorous work, but it's got to be done

The initials stand for the ‘Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’, the regulator set up in the wake of the expenses’ scandal.

It’s they who have come up with the controversial proposal to increase MPs’ pay (from 2015) by nine per cent (whilst cutting their pension entitlement and other benefits).

As part of IPSA’s work on this issue, detailed surveys were conducted of what the public thought of the job of an MP.

What emerged was that there’s a high level of understanding about what we do at a constituency level but much less understanding of what we do at Westminster.

To correct this, IPSA suggested that MPs do ‘annual reports’.

So, here’s a brief summary of what I’ve done in the last week.

On Monday and Tuesday I spent many hours preparing for the publication of the Keogh report – which put the East Lancashire Health Trust into special measures.

This involved lots of phone calls, a study of the available data, and a trip to the Department of Health to read the report before it was published. I then listened to the Health Secretary’s statement and attended a meeting with the man who wrote the report, Sir Bruce Keogh.

In between, I met with Lancashire MPs to discuss fracking, whilst yesterday morning I was grilled by a special committee looking into prisoner voting.

In the afternoon, I visited a major insurer to see how they price individual motor insurance policies, as I continue my campaign against the ‘postcode lottery’ that affects areas like ours.

I’ve also spoken in the Commons on four occasions – on the Middle East, the announcement of specialist vascular services at Royal Blackburn Hospital, electronic tagging, as well as the Keogh report.

Unsurprisingly, it’s the bear garden of Prime Minister’s Questions which gets all the headlines, but it is the important and often unglamorous day to day work in Parliament where MPs really make a difference.

IPSA are right to want the public to hear more about this.