New expenses file on MP or peer passed to CPS, Scotland Yard says

A new file of evidence against a parliamentarian suspected of abusing expenses was passed to prosecutors today, Scotland Yard said. The file is the seventh to be submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service by police investigating the abuse of parliamentary expenses. Elliot Morley, the MP for Scunthorpe, David Chaytor, who represents Bury North, and Livingston MP Jim Devine, along with Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield, have been charged with theft by false accounting and appeared in court last week . A Metropolitan police spokesman said: "One further file of evidence relating to parliamentary expenses was delivered to the CPS this afternoon. This file will now be subject to CPS consideration on whether there should be any charges." Police and prosecutors declined to identify the subject of the latest investigation. It was reported last week that police were looking into the expenses of the Labour MP Harry Cohen, who received more than £70,000 in a second home allowance for a house he rarely visited. Asked if the file passed to the CPS today related to Cohen, a member of the Leyton and Wansted MP's staff said: "I don't know. I can't give you that information." The CPS announced last week that the Labour peer Lady Uddin would not face criminal charges over claims that she was paid more than £100,000 in expenses on a flat in Kent that had been unoccupied for years. Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, came under fire after he said there was insufficient evidence to establish that Uddin did not occupy the home in Kent. The other file passed to the CPS related to the Labour peer Lord Clarke of Hampstead. The CPS said he would not be prosecuted on the same day it announced the charges against Morley, Chaytor, Devine and Hanningfield . The Scotland Yard spokesman said: "A small number of cases remain subject to consideration by the joint MPS and CPS assessment panel or are subject to continuing investigation."