2.—(1) The Parliamentary corporation shall make payments, in accordance with this Order, to a qualifying party in respect of any expenses incurred by that party, on or after 1st July 1999, for the purpose of assisting any of the members of the Parliament who are connected with that party to perform their Parliamentary duties.
(2) Subject to article 3(3), the total amount of payments that may be made under this Order to any qualifying party in any period shall not exceed the relevant amount for that period multiplied by the number of members of the Parliament who are connected with that party at the beginning of that period.
(3) For the period beginning with 1st July 1999 and ending with 31st March 2000 the relevant amount shall be the sum of £5,000.
(4) For the period of one year beginning with 1st April 2000 the relevant amount shall be the sum of £5,000 but increased by the appropriate percentage for that period and if the resulting amount is not a whole number of pounds and pence it shall be rounded to the nearest penny.
(5) For any subsequent period of one year beginning with 1st April the relevant amount shall be the relevant amount for the previous period increased by the appropriate percentage for that subsequent period and if the resulting amount is not a whole number of pounds and pence it shall be rounded to the nearest penny.
(6) The appropriate percentage for any period is the percentage by which the retail prices index for the month of March immediately preceding that period has increased compared with the retail prices index for the previous March.
(7) The references in paragraph (6) to the retail prices index are references to the general index of retail prices (for all items) published by the Office for National Statistics; and if that index is not published for a month which is relevant for the purposes of this article the references in that paragraph shall be construed as references to any substituted index or index figure published by that Office.