Moats, Duck Houses and Bath Plugs: Members of Parliament, the Expenses Scandal and the Use of Web Sites

New developments in information and communications technology (ICT) have the capacity to transform the working lives of politicians and to restructure the relationships between elected representatives and electors in a parliamentary democracy. They also give more meaning to the process by which principals (electors) hold their agents (MPs) to account by enhancing the quality and quantity of information available. The article examines the way in which British MPs in the 2005-2010 Parliament used ICT (specifically their websites) to explain to their constituents the use of allowances during the expenses scandal that surfaced in 2009. A very brief overview of the expenses scandal is provided and MPs are divided into five categories (defined as the 'webless', the 'non-committal', the 'minimalists', the 'agenda shapers' and the 'personal communicators') depending on how they used their websites during the scandal. The characteristics of the MPs (party, gender, age, safeness of seat and length of service in the House of Commons) in each category are analysed and the lessons that can be drawn from the use of ICT during this episode are examined. It concludes that, although there is still enormous variety in the use made of ICT by MPs, demonstrated by the detailed examination of parliamentary sites during the scandal, a significant number came to realise its potential to communicate with their constituents directly about their own conduct and the issue in general. The nature of the expenses scandal encouraged some MPs to adopt a much more personal style than before on their websites and seems highly likely to change both party and public expectations about the regularity and immediacy of information made available to voters in the future.