MPs spent £100,000 on temporary bonging mechanism for Big Ben used just ten times

Parliament’s clock tower is under refurbishment but MPs still wanted to hear the bell on special occasions

Scaffolding is being removed from the Elizabeth Tower after years of refurbishment (Getty Images)

MPs spent nearly £100,000 on a temporary bonging mechanism for Big Ben so the bell could be sounded on just 10 occasions during renovations.

The interim striking mechanism, which cost around £10,000 per use, was commissioned because MPs wanted the bell to ring on New Year’s Eve and for remembrance commemorations.

The cost included “commissioning, out of hours attendance, set-up and testing of the temporary mechanism”, with the bill running to a total of £96,000.

The Elizabeth Tower, the official name for parliament’s clock tower which includes Big Ben, has been under renovation since 2017.

The refurbishment programme is the most extensive in the tower’s history and is expected to be completed this year, with scaffolding already being removed from the building.

“The overall contract value for the project includes all the costs of initial commissioning of the temporary mechanism used for this purpose and testing and operating it on each occasion it has been used since the project started in 2017,” Sir Charles Walker, a senior Conservative MP who sits on the House of Commons Commission, said in response to a written parliamentary question.

“The mechanism was used on 10 occasions, with Big Ben also being sounded several times in the run-up to each New Year’s Eve, as well as for testing in advance of each occasion that was marked.”

Sir Charles said arrangements for striking Big Ben “were coordinated around the planned works so as to minimise the impact on the project costs and to ensure there was no delay to the project”, adding that the temporary striking mechanism would be kept as a “contingency arrangement” in case something should go wrong with the usual mechanism in future.

The decision to build a temporary striking mechanism was taken in 2017 by the House of Commons Commission and was reconfirmed in 2018, despite a campaign by some newspapers and politicians that Big Ben should “bong for Brexit” when Britain left the EU.

A House of Commons spokesperson said: “The temporary striking mechanism has been specially designed to ensure it fits within the unique constraints of the Elizabeth Tower, powering the hammer to strike Big Ben in the precise way needed to create its authentic sound.

"Use of the mechanism on pre-planned occasions during the works represents significantly better value for money, compared to striking Big Ben on an ad-hoc basis at short notice. The cost of the mechanism is included within the overall budget for the Elizabeth Tower project. It will be retained by parliament as a back-up striking mechanism for the future.”