What you need to know about report on Maria Miller's expenses

Culture Secretary Maria Miller. Credit: PA

So, Maria Miller has been cleared of fiddling her expenses. Here's a brief summary of what you need to know.

1) She was accused of putting up her parents in her taxpayer-funded second home, wasn't she? Yes, but she's totally cleared of this. Basically, she was their carer and everyone accepts that is fair enough.

2) How about over-claiming for interest payments on that home? The issue here is what you and I as taxpayers should really have been paying for.

She buys a house to allow her to carry out her duties as an MP - well, fine, we can see we should have been paying the interest on that. But what happens if she uses her house as an asset and goes on to borrow more money against it? We shouldn't be paying for that extra interest, should we?

The committee was particularly interested in her decision to increase her mortgage by another 50k in 2007. What was that for? She doesn't say, because she doesn't consider it their business on account of the fact that she never intended to claim for that extra interest. And indeed, she didn't. Most of the time.

But, to be honest, Ms Miller's household finances come across as more than a little chaotic (this may actually endear her somewhat to the public).

Sometimes, she did claim more than she should have done and this is why she now has to pay £5,800 back, but I think a fair conclusion would be that this was down to a cock-up rather than conspiracy. I can't really find evidence of malevolent intent in the report.

3) But she has to apologise to the house, doesn't she?

Yes, for her 'attitude' to the inquiry, which is frankly a bit weird. Her behaviour does seem to have been rather strange, particularly given that she doesn't seem to have had much to hide.

There are some amusingly caustic lines, including: "On 10 October, the Commissioner invited Mrs Miller to a meeting, but it proved impossible to identify a mutually convenient time." Ouch.

Part three is certainly a bit damaging, but she basically walks away more or less unscathed.