Overtime claimed by connected parties

IPSA holds the information that you request.

Under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), a connected party is defined as:

1. a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner of the member;

2. parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece of the member or of a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner of the member; or

3. a body corporate, a firm or a trust with which the MP is connected as defined in section 252 of the Companies Act 2006.

Staffing Expenditure may only be claimed for the salary of one employee who is a connected party, unless an MP employed more than one connected party on 7 May 2010.

Where a staff member employed by an MP works hours additional to their contracted hours, overtime payments may be claimed from the Staffing Expenditure budget.

Overtime may also be claimed by existing staff members who are providing cover for staff members who are ill, on maternity leave or otherwise away from the office. In these instances, overtime may be claimed from Contingency payments (should an application to IPSA for Contingency payments be successful).

As such, please find attached at Annex A the total number of hours claimed in overtime by connected parties in the last two years. Alongside the total number of hours claimed, we have broken down this figure by those hours claimed as regular overtime from Staffing Expenditure and those claimed from Contingency payments.

Annex A

*MPs may apply for contingency funding to help cover unanticipated events, such as staff illness or maternity leave. In such instances, existing staff members may work overtime to provide staffing cover.