The Sunday Times revealed a leaked internal study of ODPM officials that described Prescott's department as unfocused, lacking leadership and compared it to a 'pantomime horse'
It depicted the department as poorly managed,
...The taxpayer had been footing the bill for the £2.3m apartment in Admiralty House and Prescott has now repaid £3,830 to the exchequer after owning up to the mistake....
Questions have also been raised about the tax he pays for the benefit in kind he enjoys from living in a government-owned flat in central London. One tax accountant suggested he should pay £46,000 a year...
In a statement Prescott said that he had been paying council tax on his Hull constituency home, an eight-bedroom turreted residence...
...Officials insist that the tax has been paid at the full rate, not at the discounted second-home rate, but they refuse to say whether he subsequently claims the money back as a 'parliamentary expense'...
....virtually every MP with a constituency outside London does claim their council tax bill as an expense on the basis that it is a second home...
Prescott has claimed almost £40,000 between 2002 and 2004 for the upkeep of his constituency property. This sum is likely to include the costs of council tax.
Prescott also has the use of an official country residence, Dorneywood in Buckinghamshire, the council tax for which is paid by the charitable trust that looks after the house...
