Scotland: MSPs’ expenses fall by 87.5%

Taken from the Herald, this is one of the first real tangible examples of FOI having a clear impact on relation to the spending of public money once opened up to public scrutiny. (it will be interesting to track these figures over a longer period to see if they start creeping back up again and as the article acknowledges other factors mnay have impacted on the reduction).

MSPs appear to have slashed their expense claims in the wake of freedom of information and greater public scrutiny of their spending.

New quarterly figures issued yesterday by the Scottish Parliament showed a steep decline in allowance claims through last year, at a time when former Tory leader David McLetchie was being hounded over.