Peers spending £840,000 a year on tiny Parliament one-way system

House of Lords officials are under fire after it was revealed they spent almost a million pounds last year on health and safety guards a tiny one-way system inside the Palace of Westminster.

A team of traffic marshalls has been guiding cars, vans and pedestrians through the narrow roadways in the palace while restoration work has been going on to maintain the historic buildings.

But questions have been raised about the cost of the health and safety operation going on in a few tiny carriageways and yards inside the Thames-side palace, and whether the marshalls are needed at all.

In a House of Lords finance committee meeting in late February it was revealed that the set up, employing just nine marshals, cost £700,000 in 2023 – plus £140,000 VAT at 20 per cent for a total of £840,000.  This equates to £93,000 per marshall.

However, peers who had been asking questions were not told about the meeting in advance or invited to address it or quiz attending members of the Restoration and Renewal Programme (RRP), which is charged with maintenance of the historic buildings.

Tory peer Lord Hayward, who has repeatedly questioned the cost of the scheme, has now written to committee chairman Lord Morse, requesting answers and criticising the decision to meet in ‘virtual secret’.

He told MailOnline: ‘This is a huge sum being spent with few answers as to why. It’s now 56 days since the committee meeting and still no-one has had the courtesy to speak to me about a matter I raised on the floor of the House 13 days previously – 69 days ago.

A team of traffic marshalls has been guiding cars, vans and pedestrians through the narrow roadways in the palace while restoration work has been going on.

In a House of Lords finance committee meeting in late February it was revealed that the set up, employing just nine marshals, cost £700,000 in 2023 – plus £140,000 VAT at 20 per cent for a total of £840,000. This equates to £93,000 per marshal.

Tory peer Lord Hayward, who has repeatedly questioned the cost of the scheme, has now written to committee chairman Lord Morse, requesting answers and criticising the decision to meet in ‘virtual’ secret.

‘When I write to them with polite questions about the figures I’ve received previously they don’t answer.

When I put down written questions they give the answers they want to give, not answers to the questions I’ve asked.’

It followed a separate admission by the House of Commons authorities that a marshall was being paid to stand guard over the parliamentary underground car park 24 hours a day to make sure no one drove on a ramp that was closed.

Sir Charles Walker, who sits on the House of Commons Commission which is overseeing the RRP along with its Lords’ counterpart, made the admission in answering a question by DUP MP Gregory Campbell.

In his letter, seen by MailOnline, Lord Hayward said: ‘The sole reason I now know about this process is because a journalist from the Daily Mail drew it to my attention 35 days after the meeting of February 21. Again, nobody even thought it appropriate to write nor speak to me!!

‘Is there any point in raising an issue if the Finance Committee intends to continue to handle matters in such a way?’

Peers have been trying to find out for more than a year how much money has been spent on a team traffic marshals employed on a route a few hundred metres long while restoration work is carried out.

Lord Morse was previously the head of the National Audit Office, charged with getting value for money from public projects for the taxpayer.

The minutes of the February meeting reported: ‘The cost of the marshals used to manage the temporary one-way system, was just under £700k in 2023. When managing the one-way system there were at present six marshals on the day shift and three on the late shift…

‘Following discussion of the costs and reasoning for traffic marshals on the estate the Committee agreed it was content it did not need to revisit the topic again.’

It followed a separate admission by the House of Commons authorities that a marshall was being paid to stand guard over a car park ramp 24 hours a day to make sure no one drove on it.

It also noted that ‘it was common construction industry practice to use traffic marshals where it was not possible to have separation between pedestrians and vehicles’ and that ‘regular reviews had taken place since the one-way system was implemented and marshal numbers had been reduced where possible. Marshals were not deployed in the evening when the House was not sitting, and their utilisation was paused altogether for a number of days over the Christmas recess’.

A House of Lords spokeswoman said:  ‘The Senior Deputy Speaker proposed on February 8 in answer to a question in the Chamber that the Finance Committee might consider the issue, and it did so on February 21.

‘These are matters of parliamentary and public record. The Committee discussion took place in the usual way. The Committee considered that the reasoning for the use of traffic marshals on the estate made sense in the current circumstances. The Committee would revisit the question of traffic marshals if circumstances change in the future.’

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