Lords face electronic "tagging" to check claims

By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - Members of the House of Lords could have their movements tracked electronically at Westminster under reforms to prevent peers claiming their full daily allowance just for turning up briefly at parliament.

The plans are proposed in a review of Lords' allowances commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and published on Thursday.

The reforms, drawn up by the Senior Salaries Review Body, which advises the government on top public sector pay, would also require peers for the first time to produce receipts for most of their expenses.

Public outrage over politicians' expenses has largely been confined to the elected members of parliament, with excessive claims for items such as moat-cleaning and duck houses tarnishing Westminster's reputation.

But there have also been concerns over payments claimed by some Lords, who are not salaried -- unless they are government ministers -- but can claim daily attendance, travel and housing allowances worth up to 335 pounds a day.

At least one member of the Lords was among four unnamed parliamentarians from both houses to have their cases of suspected abuse of expenses referred to prosecutors this week.

At present, peers only have to appear briefly in the Lords' debating chamber or be noted in the minutes of a committee to qualify for the payment, a situation the review body said was open to abuse.

It said that a peer who only turned up for part of a day should only claim a portion of the daily allowance, not the maximum.