Peter Mandelson’s influence in government was underscored today with the release of a breakdown of government committees which shows that he attended 80% of them.

Mandelson, the first secretary of state, attends 35 of the 43 committees and subcommittees, in contrast to the 23 attended by foreign secretary David Miliband.

Mandelson’s total is also in contrast to the 27 attended by chancellor Alistair Darling and sees the business secretary asked to cast an eye over policies as varied as immigration, climate change, “life chances”; Africa; food and energy and children.

The official deputy prime minister to Tony Blair, John Prescott, sat on just 17 committees.

Mandelson’s reach was revealed during a rush of announcements as parliament rose for its summer recess. This summer recess is longer than last year’s at 82 days.

In contrast to previous years when the prime minister has only managed a few days’ break, Downing Street said Gordon Brown would be going on a longer holiday than usual, taking all of August off.

Under a deadline effectively imposed by the recess, MPs passed emergency legislation tonight which would see the emergency creation of a new watchdog to regulate their expenses.

In legislation rushed through within a month, MPs finally voted to create the new body, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, after the government was forced to make a number of concessions during its passage through parliament, including suffering one defeat when MPs rejected attempts by the government to end the historic right of parliamentary privilege.

Speaking about the attempt to get the measures through parliament, the minister responsible for the legislation, justice secretary Jack Straw, described it as “the most difficult piece of legislation” he has ever dealt with.

Though the expenses legislation began life enjoying cross-party consensus, Tory and Lib Dem support crumbled when the opposition parties believed the government was trying to shoehorn into the legislation additional measures they thought were superfluous to the clean-up of MPs’ expenses. MPs expressed dismay today about the lack of time to scrutinise the legislation, with the Tory grandee Sir Patrick Cormack complaining that MPs only had an hour to vote on a bill he argued had been “completely rewritten”.

MPs were debating the parliamentary standards bill after it had returned to the commons chamber from the Lords where they had removed from the legislation parts that would have made it an offence should a parliamentarian fail to comply with the register of financial interests that will be maintained by IPSA.

Though the government had tried to create three criminal offences, the final legislation sees only one. It is now a criminal offence for an MP to make a false expense claim with that MP punished by up to 12 months if found guilty.

In an attempt to allay backbench fears of rushed legislation, ministers said there would be the opportunity in the next two years through a “sunset clause” to review the IPSA in formal post-legislative scrutiny.

Another body, the members estimate committee, also announced it would be placing more stringent demands on MPs, requiring them to publish a greater amount of detail on the amount they claimed in second home allowances over the last year.

Commons authorities are expected to publish their details of MPs’ expense claims in the autumn. Though the home addresses will be blacked out, the MEC now wants MPs to state directly whether they have switched the address they have designated as their second homes.

The latest, more onerous move, has been spearheaded by the new speaker, John Bercow, who chairs the members estimate committee.