Guido hits the nail on the head.

Harriet Harman's much heralded "end of self regulation" with the "independent" Parliamentary Standards Authority has seen the light of day.

However you dress it up, the power to refer misconduct to the courts is exactly the same as the power to prevent misconduct getting to the courts.

Guido's response pretty much nails it. We're still waiting to scrutinise the thing and will report back. Initial thoughts centre on the introductory paragraph - limiting scope to financial misconduct, which, as we've discussed at length, is only a symptom of the problem.


The devil will be in the detail - this body can impose criminal penalties, but as Guido points out, in practise it's effectively an establishment filter which then decides how misconduct will be dealt with before courts get anywhere near it. Also noted by Peter Riddell in the Times,

"The final power to decide on non-criminal penalties will still lie with MPs. But self-regulation is being heavily qualified in practice."