A TORY MSP who hired his own IT firm to design his website and then claimed it back on parliamentary expenses has been reported to the Scottish Parliaments’s Corporate Body (SPCB).
Finlay Carson claimed £1200 in March for web design work carried out by CMS Broadband.
The MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries is listed as a director and shareholder of the firm alongside his brother John.
He had pledged not to take any money from the firm while serving as an MSP.
Holyrood’s expenses rules state that “a member shall ensure that any claim is submitted solely in respect of the performance of parliamentary duties and is not submitted in order to gain financial or other benefit for the member or any other person”.
Following a news report on Monday, a member of the public made an official complaint to the chief executive of the Scottish Parliament, Paul Grice, as well as informing standards commissioner Bill Thomson. “If there is a breach of the rules, we will, of course, comply with whatever the parliamentary authorities advise and pay back any costs,” said a spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives.
Last month, Tory MSP Alexander Burnett was found to have broken parliamentary rules on two occasions and banned from asking written questions for two weeks.
A Scottish Parliament spokeswoman said: “When claiming under the members’ expenses scheme, members are expected to act in accordance with the principles and rules of the scheme.”
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