Friday 3 July 2009

Fast acting

FAST ACTING ASSEMBLY SHOCK! Hold the front pages. The Assembly has moved swiftly to do something!

On Tuesday, Speaker Willie Hay said that the Assembly will be publishing MLA expenses dating back to 2003.

Within a few short hours, the years and years of expenses were easy to find on the Assembly website (previously you had to be pretty determined with your web browsing!).

And, Hay has promised that by November the detailed breakdown of the expenses will be published.

As to whether they are to be redacted for ‘members’ security/blushes’ or not has not yet been revealed. Whether there will be a Freedom of Information request and a leak/sale to a newspaper hasn’t been revealed yet either.

Whether any journalists will scoff at responses to their queries from MLAs remains to be seen. Stephen Nolan has reportedly been told by BBC bosses not to book any leave around November.

No comments: