In this blog, Nick Dickinson argues that Stella Creasy’s call for better parental leave rights for MPs is a vital step. But a better system can’t be achieved by IPSA alone, and asking it to do so may undermine the aim of a more representative Parliament in the long run.
The Labour MP Stella Creasy has written to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the body that regulates MPs’ pay and expenses, after the authority denied a request to fund the appointment of a ‘locum MP’ to provide full maternity cover. While Creasy has argued that IPSA must “follow the law on maternity cover” in this respect, the regulator has responded, through its chief executive Ian Todd, that the “concept of a locum… is misconceived in relation to an MP” as a matter of constitutional principle.
In the context of the systematic underrepresentation of women in British politics, IPSA’s position seems hard to justify – appearing to put constitutional niceties ahead of gender equity. Parliament has a long history of direct and indirect discrimination against women MPs, with the fight for better parental rights only the latest in a long list of fights to make Parliament more equitable. IPSA’s position is also undermined on this occasion by having provided funding for a locum position for Creasy previously in 2019, albeit only after similar pressure being applied.
Yet the clear and pressing need to address parental leave for MPs cannot fall to IPSA alone. Independent bodies of various kinds are common in UK. However, IPSA is unique in exercising functions which so directly affect core institutions of British democracy – and which were held until comparatively recently to be the sole prerogative of a democratic sovereign Parliament. For the same reason, its central tasks are sharply delimited: to determine MPs pay and pension contributions and to regulate and administer the system of expenses (or ‘business costs’, as the regulator now calls them).
Throughout its existence, IPSA has been the subject of a variety of attacks by MPs on its decisions. While this was initially directed at the exercise of its core tasks, in particular the regulation of expenses, over time controversies have shifted towards what IPSA is not doing rather than what it is. This has included, among other things, criticism in support of a greater HR role for MPs staff, for whom IPSA provides resources and template contracts, in the context of bullying and harassment scandals in the Commons.
These critiques all have individual merit, but taken together they amount to a form of mission creep with the potential to backfire badly. As scholarship on agencies such as IPSA has shown, their independence is assured through the intensive management of reputation. Contrary to the expectations of public choice theorists, however, this is achieved not through ‘empire building’ and taking on a broader role but by a ruthless focus on narrow core competencies. At a time where some of IPSA’s have once again become controversial this lesson is all the more important.
Moreover, the effective exercise of IPSA’s pay setting competency itself has substantive consequences for gender parity in parliament. Maintaining an adequate level of pay has been shown improve legislator quality by overcoming barriers faced by women in entering legislative bodies. Kotakorpi and Poutvaara (2011), for example, take advantage of a one-off pay reform of Finnish legislators to show that increased remuneration led to increases in levels of higher education among candidates and office holders, but only among women. Likewise, Atkinson, Rogers and Olfert (2016) also find a positive effect of increasing legislators’ compensation on the proportion of highly educated women in the Canadian parliament by increasing the pool of candidates.
Instead, Parliament should take responsibility for the constitutional reforms required for a real solution to the problem. One obvious device would be the use of ‘alternates’ – or substitute candidates elected alongside the primary candidate in each constituency. If the candidate wins office but is unable is unable to serve for any reason (illness, death, extended travel, or, as in this case, parental leave), then the alternate takes their place fulfilling the full functions of the office holder. Alternate positions are widely used in Latin America and can be found in systems around the globe.
Routine use of alternates may also come with other benefits in terms of broadening descriptive representation. By increasing the pool of candidates for office, parties may gain more leverage to strategically nominate members of underrepresented groups to alternate positions. A system of alternates would also allow MPs to take leave for other reasons, for example mental health. This has been highlighted most recently by Labour MP Nadia Whittome’s decision to take time off to recover from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But the ability of more MPs to regularly take such breaks may become increasingly important in light of the psychological pressures of modern politics. Again, this impact is very likely to be gendered issue given the broader unequal burden of mental health in the population as a whole.
In sum, Stella Creasy’s call for better parental leave rights for MPs is a vital step towards a more equitable politics. But a better system can’t be achieved by IPSA alone. Moreover, asking it to do so may undermine the aim of a more representative and democratic Parliament in the long run.
Dr Nicholas Dickinson is Bingham Early Career Fellow in Constitutional Studies at Balliol College, Oxford.