Dimension: 1.2.4 Access to resources
This dimension concerns the remuneration and resources available to MPs to enable them to perform their duties. This includes MPs’ salary and any parliamentary allowances, as well as access to the staff, facilities and other resources they need to support their work.
MPs should be adequately remunerated and resourced for the following reasons:
- To ensure that all citizens, regardless of their means, can stand as an MP
- To ensure that MPs have sufficient means of livelihood to be able to focus on their parliamentary responsibilities
- To ensure that MPs have adequate support to carry out quality work and undertake their responsibilities effectively
Different jurisdictions have widely differing levels of, and approaches to, remuneration and allowances. MPs’ remuneration and allowances are likely to include a salary, subsistence and travel allowances, additional allowances depending on the office held, and pension arrangements.
Remuneration and allowances should in all cases be adequate for their purpose and be made available fairly to all MPs. Increasingly, they are determined independently by a body outside parliament in order to enhance the legitimacy and transparency of the process.
In almost all parliaments, MPs have also access to facilities and other resources. These could include computing and other equipment, communication tools, official transport and constituency offices. Many parliaments also provide funding for MPs to hire staff to work directly for them.
In addition, MPs are able to draw upon expert services provided by the parliamentary administration, such as research services and budget offices. Access to these services should be granted fairly and in a non-partisan manner (see also Dimension 1.5.3: Expert and administrative support).
Aspiring goal
Assess your parliament against this dimension
Assessment criteria
No 1: Rules and procedures
Clear rules and procedures, possibly established in law, govern access to resources for MPs, including how these resources are determined and how MPs have to account for their use of these resources.
No 2: Adequacy of remuneration and allowances
MPs’ remuneration and allowances are set at a level that allows any citizen, regardless of their means, to stand as an MP and to perform their duties effectively.
No 3: Process for determining remuneration and allowances
A proper process is in place to ensure that MPs’ remuneration and allowances are determined fairly and in a non-partisan manner, possibly via an independent body or process.
No 4: Staff, facilities and other resources
All MPs, irrespective of their political party, have access to staff, facilities and other resources, as proportionate to parliament’s circumstances and to their particular role, to enable them to perform their duties effectively.
How to complete this assessment
This dimension is assessed against several criteria, each of which should be evaluated separately.
For each criterion, select one of the six descriptive grades (Non-existent, Rudimentary, Basic, Good, Very good and Excellent) that best reflects the situation in your parliament, and provide details of the evidence on which this assessment is based.
The evidence for assessment of this dimension could include the following:
- Rules and procedures governing access to resources for MPs
- Feedback from MPs about the adequacy of remuneration, allowances, staff and resources
- Independent reports or evidence regarding the adequacy of the remuneration, allowances, staff and resources provided to MPs
- Independent reports or evidence regarding the fair and non-partisan provision of remuneration, allowances, staff and resources to MPs
Where relevant, provide additional comments or examples that support the assessment.
Download this indicatorGet help with this assessment
The assessment of indicators involves diagnosing and considering strengths and weaknesses, i.e. the things parliament is doing well, and the things it could do better or more effectively, taking into account established good practices that are described in the indicators.
Read the assessment guidance to find out what to consider when conducting an assessment against the Indicators. Find out how to prepare, how to set the objectives of the assessment, how to organize the process, and more. Contact the project partners for expert advice.
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