Accommodation expenditure in 2012-13 and the number of MPs who have purchased homes since 1970

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) was created by Parliament under the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 to independently oversee and regulate MPs’ expenses. IPSA has two main roles: regulating the business costs and expenses system and administering and paying MPs’ expenses, pay and pensions.

As such, we do not hold information on the private affairs of Members of Parliament, including whether Members of Parliament have purchased property in London. Further, IPSA began operations in May 2010, and does not hold any information prior to that date.

For reference, the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses does not provide for a ‘second home’. Under the provisions of the Scheme, non-London MPs may claim for accommodation expenditure to meet costs necessarily incurred on overnight accommodation which is required for the performance of their parliamentary functions.

MPs may only claim for Accommodation Expenditure in relation to a property at one location, which may be either in the London Area, or within the MP's constituency, (or within 20 miles of any point on the constituency boundary). Members are only permitted to have one property registered with IPSA for the purpose of claiming accommodation expenditure at any given time.

Paragraph 4.8 of the Scheme details the costs which may be claimed under Accommodation Expenditure. More information on this may be viewed via this link to the Scheme on our website.

You also requested the total amount paid to MPs for accommodation expenditure in 2012-13. You may be aware that IPSA publishes all claims for business costs and expenses on our website every two months, three months in arrears. You can view the published information via this link to our publication website.

The following instructions may assist you in filtering the information:

1. Select ‘Search Function’ via the menu bar at the top of the page

2. Under ‘Select MP(s), Constituencies, Postcode or Region’ tick the box to select all MPs.

3. Under ‘Select a year and, optionally, month(s)’, select 2012-13

4. Under ‘Select category(s) of Business Cost or Expense’, select ‘Accommodation’.

5. Under ‘Select type(s) of Business Cost or Expense’, select the expense type you are seeking information on.

6. Click ‘Find’ to retrieve the results. You can export this data to a spreadsheet format via the link at the top right-hand corner of the page.

The FOIA states that information that is accessible by other means is not subject to release. Therefore, as the information you have requested is already available on our website, it is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the FOIA (information accessible to applicant by other means).