Sorry, I still think there is nothing here to be concerned about and that this is a non story. The sums involved are really small. Whether someone should be claiming a general fixed amount instead of producing receipts is a moot point-I had a job once with a housebuilder that preferred a fixed amount every month rather than have to get finance staff to vet every invoice and receipt as this itself took up resources and was costly to do. It was assessed on what was reasonable at the time and we were expected to spend around that level on travel and taking clients out to lunch. If we overspent we did not get the money back.

I then went to work for another organisation which quibbled about ?1 spent making a personal call on the company mobile phone. The dialogue went on for weeks - they demanded a cheque for ?1 which would have cost me more than that to write. I insisted on giving them the cash. Letters were sent by HR to my home outlining why there was a policy against accepting cash from staff. All of which cost them more than ?1. Can you see my point? Sometimes you just have to let people get on with reasonable expenditure as otherwise you will be nit picking everything.

The point about whether it is reasonable to charge the taxpayer for accountancy fees is another matter but I would assume that they were all doing that and therefore its not something exclusive to Jim Dowd. Personally I think ?275 is rather a good deal- cheaper than what I usually pay!