MPs are paying up to £10,000 from their staffing budgets for services from public relations firms in an apparent breach of Parliamentary rules, The Times has learnt.

As MPs finally agreed to undertake limited reforms of their expenses, the first disclosure of how Tory MPs spent their allowances has revealed more than a dozen Conservatives, including Shadow Cabinet members, are using their allowances to pay PR firms.

Companies such as Parliamentary Liaison Services (PLS) and Media Intelligence are being paid from staffing and office budgets, with the head of PLS claiming he works as a “communications adviser” for up to 20 MPs.

This would appear to be in breach of the Green Book, which outlines the rules for MPs. It says there is an explicit bar on “advice for individual Members on self promotion, or PR for individuals or political parties”.

This came as MPs agreed to examine plans to limit the amount they can spend on furniture and household goods to £2,400, under plans Gordon Brown sprung on Parliament.

The Commons voted for a further review of the £24,000 second home allowance, two weeks after Mr Brown was attacked for failing to support a more wide-ranging package of changes which would have reduced the amount long-serving MPs could claim and ended MPs right to claim household goods on expenses.

MPs voted for a second review, weeks after they threw out a six-month investigation into the subject.

The review will examine Government proposals to limit claims on household goods to 10 per cent of the total second home allowance, and will be conducted by a Labour-dominated committee led by John Spellar, a Labour MP and former union official.

It will also examine the “reasonable costs of mortgage interest for a second residence” - widely seen as an attempt to limit the claims of MPs with expensive London homes, such as David Cameron and George Osborne, who claim the whole £24,000 allowance as mortgage interest.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives became the first to publish greater details of expenses for all but seven of their MPs. This revealed that: More than 60 Tory MPs employ family members and more than a dozen pay their wives in the top bracket of up to £40,000, many for their services as “executive secretaries” in Parliament. They include Roger Gale, Peter Bone, Graham Brady, Alistair Burt, Stephen Dorrell, Edward Leigh, Peter Luff, Patrick McLoughlin, Malcolm Moss and Owen Paterson.

Laurence Robertson, the Northern Ireland spokesman, lists both Anne Adams, his partner, and Susan Robertson, his estranged wife. as working for him. They both receive £10-£20,000. James Arbuthnot, the former Tory chief whip, claimed £1,0145.24 for “Utilities, maintenance and repairs”.

Five Tory MPs - Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton, Sir John Stanley, Christopher Chope and Anthony Steen - defied Mr Cameron and did not submit returns. Bill Cash was expected to submit his claim by the end of yesterday. Sir Paul Beresford did not claim anything, Tory sources said.

The MPs who list their use of PLS services are Simon Burns, James Gray, Jonathan Djanogly, James Dudderidge, James Gray, Damian Green, Stephen Hammond, John Horam, David Lidington, Anne Milton, Owen Paterson and John Whittingdale.

Paul Goodman, a shadow minister, gives the head of PLS a Parliamentary pass but he does not list the company's services on his declaration.

Mr Gray lists PLS as a payment for a “Communications adviser” while Mr Horam says that it is for “work on constituency newspaper”. Mr Hammond and Mr Paterson, however, list the work as “annual office and research support” while Mr Lidington and Ms Milton say he paid them £1,115 “survey of constituency businesses”.

On one website, Mark Fullbrook, the managing director: “He is currently retained by over 20 Members of the British Parliament as their Communications Adviser.”

PLS is not the only company Tory MPs use. Andrew Mitchell, the International Development spokesman, says he paid £1,600 to Media Intelligence Services, a well-regarded Westminster PR firm run by ex-Times journalist Nick Wood.

Eric Pickles, the communities spokesman, says that he pays Target Communications of Brentwood for “press relations and local briefings”.

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