New rules on rent
The Assembly has just published a new handbook which provides guidance for politicians who are elected in May about the expenses they will be able to claim. MLAs will still be able to employ family members, but will have to register any relative on their pay roll. But the handbook states that an MLA cannot
"claim payments for a property that they themselves own and from the commencement of the next mandate in 2011, no payments can be claimed for property that is owned by a "connected party". In this context a "connected party" can be defined as
(a) a family member, or
(b) a person with whom the Member is "connected" within the meaning of
section 252 (2) (b) (c) (d) and (e) and section 254 of the Companies Act
2006."
This new guidance should being Stormont into line with Westminster and stamp out controversies like the ones which surrounded
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