How much it (a) cost to establish and (b) costs annually to administer the register of members' interests.

The register of members’ interests is established and administered by the clerks to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee and the main costs arising relate to the clerks’ time in advising members whether interests are registrable, seeking information from members, drafting register entries and arranging for them to be published.
In relation to (a), during the 8 weeks of initial registration of members’ interests at the start of each session, we estimate that the clerking team spend approximately 90% of their time on registering members’ interests at a cost of £46,620.
In relation to (b), administration of the register after initial registration is only one of several responsibilities undertaken by the standards clerks and it is not possible to identify separately the costs of register work. Over the course of session 3, there were on average about 200 new or amended register entries per year. The cost of administering these ranges from £23 (for a simple entry or amendment) to £282 (for a more complex inquiry involving several discussions with members).
A number of changes to the categories of the register of members’ interests were implemented at the start of session 4. These changes were intended to clarify and simplify the register of members’ interests, whilst ensuring that the register captures significant financial interests and that transparency and accountability are maintained. Whilst the costs provided for initial registration are based on experience of operating under the new rules in session 4, these changes may result in a reduction in the amount of time spent dealing with amendments to the register of members’ interests during this session compared to session 3.