The redacted expenses of all MPs have been published on the Parliament website today.

Those hoping to find scandalous tales of moat cleaning and duck houses within the expenses of Greenwich MP, Nick Raynsford, may be left disappointed though. His claims are a dry affair, mostly consisting of stationery, stamps and meeting room space for constituency surgeries.

Nick Raynsford said:

“I believe that it is right that people should be able to see what expenses MPs have claimed to be reimbursed out of public funds.

I hope that the tighter rules and greater transparency now in place will help to restore public trust and confidence that has been shaken by the revelations of recent weeks.

Constituents will be able to see that the expenses I have claimed, which are among the lowest claimed by any MP, are for costs which are necessary for me to carry out my work and responsibilities as an MP, namely the costs of employing staff, running my office and communicating with constituents.”

One question mark perhaps hovers over the £2,000 a quarter he pays to the Greenwich Labour Party for the use of 32 Woolwich Road. Land Registry details show that the property is owned outright by Labour, and whilst the rent doesn’t seem excessive, other landlords around London are having to deal with a slump in rents and one wonders where’s the incentive for Nick to push for an even better deal on rent when its his own party that benefits from the income? And how much has the value of the property appreciated whilst the taxpayer has given it a guaranteed rental income?

Mr Raynsford’s office told me this “is the rental for office accommodation, also used for constituency advice surgeries and meetings.  The rental is based on a valuation carried out by a professional valuer”.

Elsewhere in the borough, Eltham’s MP, Clive Efford pre-empted the release of the material by publishing his own expenses on his website which is surely a welcome move. The usual office costs are all there but I was intrigued by the £399.99 purchase of a camcorder as an office expense. In the Youtube age, it’s not a bad idea to have the facilities to create videos, but if that was its purpose, shoudn’t it have come from the Communications Allowance not his office costs, and has anyone seen any videos produced by the Eltham MP?

He also ordered some office chairs from Staples, which is reasonable enough – but did they really require the £25 same day delivery option? I’m sure many have of us have ordered online and paused at the checkout to make sure we get best value on postage.

Mr Efford responded to Greenwich.co.uk with this statement:

As you are already aware, I have a website www.cliveefford.org.uk. To be as accessible as possible I am starting to put short videos on the site. One has already been posted. It originally went up in January this year but we had to withdraw it to sort out some technical issues although a version remained on Youtube. We have recently relaunched the video on the site and it can now be seen here: http://www.cliveefford.org.uk/newsarticles.php?id=2643&bp=3

MP for Erith and Thamesmead, John Austin, has already had his expenses covered in the Daily Telegraph. He has used the MP’s allowance system to claim for a second property, with the paper saying that after spending £10,000 of taypayer’s money on redecorations, he sold it for a £30,000 profit.

There’s a lot of material and I’m sure I’ve missed some noteworthy stuff. Let’s make this a team effort: if you spot anything questionable, feel free to add below in the comments.

29th June Update: Clive Efford has reponded and the post has been updated with his comments.