Committee publication · Report · 16 January 2026 · HC 1629
7th Report - Register of Interests of Members’ Staff: transitional provisions
From: Committee on Standards
Inquiry: Register of Interests of Members' staff: transitional provisions
Summary
The Committee on Standards reports on transitional arrangements for expanding the Register of Interests of Members' Staff following House approval in July 2025. The register will now cover all ~6,200 staff with parliamentary network accounts or photo-identity passes (previously only ~2,000 with passes). To address safety and security concerns raised by trade unions, the Committee decided staff names will be replaced with job titles in public listings, though names remain available to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for investigations.
Key findings
- Register expansion will more than double covered staff from ~2,000 to ~6,200 by including those with parliamentary network accounts, reflecting changed working practices since the 1980s–90s.
- Staff safety concerns centred on potential harassment, questions of public figure status, and whether full identification is necessary to detect conflicts of interest.
- Committee decided to publish job titles instead of individual staff names in the public register, while requiring nil returns and maintaining confidential access for the Commissioner.
- The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards noted the decision reduces public transparency on individual staff, but the Committee judged this proportionate given security risks.
- Further development work is required before full implementation; the Committee will review the arrangements after approximately one year of operation.
Recommendations
- Replace staff names with job titles in all public iterations of the Register of Interests of Members' Staff.
- Require nil returns from registered staff but do not publish them.
- Maintain confidential access to individual staff names for the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for investigation purposes.
- Conduct a review after approximately one year of operation to assess whether the new arrangements are working as intended.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Committee on Standards, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Unite (trade union), GMB (trade union), Members' and Peers' Staff Association (MAPSA), Alberto Costa (Committee Chair), House of Commons
Notable line
“… on the balance between transparency and the safety and security of members of staff, have sought to provide measures sufficiently robust to safeguard staff and provide sufficient information to secure public trust.”
Key Quotes
“The register contained their names, the interests declared, and the name of the Member of Parliament who employed them. Around 4,200 staffers hold network accounts but only around 2,000 hold passes.”
“The concerns we heard related largely to the security of staff employed by Members of Parliament. In brief, they related to the potential for staff to be identified and harassed, to the question whether staff are public figures in the same way that their Members are …”
“To require that all staff with a parliamentary network account and/ or a parliamentary pass should have a register entry but that the names of all staff be replaced with their job titles, and that nil returns be required but need not be published.”
“We accept that this represents a change in the transparency provided by the current register, but we consider it a proportionate one in light of the safety concerns raised with us.”
“… although the names of staff will no longer be made public, they will, by virtue of the declarations being made to the Registrar of Members' Financial Interest, still be available to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in the event of any complaint about a staff members' interests requiring to be investigated.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗