Section 27: Membership of Speaker’s Committee
162.This section amends Schedule 3 to the 2009 Act which makes provision for the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority which has the functions of approving the selection of candidates for appointment as a member of the IPSA and scrutinising the IPSA’s annual estimate of the use of resources. Schedule 3 to the 2009 Act currently provides that the membership of the Speaker’s Committee shall comprise the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Leader of the House of Commons, the chair of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, and five MPs who are not Ministers of the Crown. The section amends Schedule 3 of the 2009 Act so as to augment the membership of the Speaker’s Committee by adding three lay members. The lay members must be persons who are not, or have never been, MPs (new paragraph 2A(1) of Schedule 3). Lay members will be appointed for a single fixed term not exceeding 5 years (new paragraph 2A(4) of Schedule 3); as such their appointment will not terminate with the dissolution of a Parliament. The lay members may be paid by the IPSA such remuneration and allowances as the Speaker may determine (new paragraph 2A(8) and (9) of Schedule 3).