A Wycombe resident is aiming to help voters decide how hard their MPs are working for them ahead of the upcoming General Election - thanks to a new website he has co-founded.

Peter Williams, who is also a member of Hughenden Parish Council, has been playing with the idea since just after the 2010 election, and now the website is live for use.

While there is now lots of statistical and analytical information about MPs' work publically available, it is not so easy to make sense of, he said - which is where RateYourMP.com comes in.

Mr Williams said: "It is not easy to measure how effective an MP is. There is no official job description or annual performance review, just a vote by their constituents every five years. The expenses scandal in 2009 forced the government to declare its intention to become more open and transparent with its data, but it’s still very difficult to get a complete, easy to understand picture of how much they are costing us. RateYourMP.com aims to make that simpler."

The site provides access to a range of information so users can see, for example, how many times an MP voted in the House of Commons compared to how many votes actually took place. Visitors can also access information about how much money they took in salary, allowances and expenses and see - over the five year period - how much they ‘cost per vote’ in the current Parliament.

The information is compiled from a number of different official sources such as data.parliament.uk Mr Williams, who says his interest in democracy rather than arty politics, contacted all the MPs for their feedback, inviting them to make statements to add to their own section of the website.

He said the site was still being developed and he hopes to expand its scope to cover, for instance, MEPs in the future. He acknowledged the fact that the information may sometimes need context. An MP travelling from the other end of the country, for instance, would have greater travel expenses than one in Bucks - but this information, he added, could "throw up oddities" that are interesting in themselves.

He said: "It's very difficult to do a complete 'apples for apples' comparison for every MP, but that is not to say you can't have a go.

"Anything that aids scrutiny and transparancy should be seen as a good thing."

He added the site's use would go well beyond the General Election, with interesting statistics set to come as and when a brace of newly elected MPs are in their posts.

Mr Williams added: "RateYourMP.com is self-funded, not affiliated with any political party, pressure or lobby group and we have no axe to grind. Our aim is to encourage the electorate to engage with the political process and to provide an unbiased view of the work of our MPs."