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MPs 'claim third less on expenses'
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The amount claimed by MPs on expenses fell by more than a third after wide-scale abuses of the system were made public.
They were reimbursed £3.1 million for accommodation in the last six months of 2009 - compared to nearly £5.1 million for the same period in 2008.
But the latest tranche of expenses details published by the House of Commons did raise fresh questions about hundreds of thousands of pounds claimed in unaccountable "petty cash" and subsistence payments.
Individual MPs were also facing embarrassing revelations about their spending - such as immigration minister Damian Green's £3,600 bill to license pictures for his website.
The new material disclosed by the Commons covers accommodation, office, communications and incidental allowances from the second and third quarters of the 2009-10 financial year - the period immediately after the expenses scandal broke.
However, it does not include the bulk of MPs' travel costs or staff salaries.
A searchable database has been created on the parliament website so that members of the public can access their MP's records more easily.
Claims for second home expenses, the most controversial area, came to £3,114,859.68, down from £5,075,023.89.
The savings for the taxpayer are larger because the figures do not take into account the £1.1 million MPs were ordered to return to the public purse last year following the Legg review of claims from 2004-9.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds more was handed back voluntarily as politicians sought to repair their reputations in the eyes of voters. But spending across other allowances actually rose by around £300,000.
