Former Tory peer Lord Hanningfield is to be suspended from the House of Lords and ordered to repay £3,300 of expenses, after he was found to have failed to act “on his personal honour” by the standards watchdog.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found that Hanningfield claimed the daily allowance of £300 for attending the Lords on 11 occasions and simply clocking in and clocking out withot “undertaking any parliamentary work”. He was only “on the parliamentary estate for fewer than 40 minutes” on each day, according to the report.
The suspension of a peer for more than a year is the maximum punishment that can be imposed by the watchdog, and must first be agreed upon by the House of Lords.
Lord Hanningfield gained infamy as a Tory peer during the 2010 expenses scandal and was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in May 2011 of claiming more than £13,000 of parliamentary expenses to which he was not entitled. As a result of the scandal he had the Tory whip removed, served 10 weeks of a 9 month sentence, and after paying back £28,000 he returned to parliament in April 2012.
