Adjustments to MPs’ salaries and consultations

For the purposes of the FOIA, IPSA does not hold such a report, however I would like to provide some information on IPSA’s position.

IPSA is the independent statutory body responsible for regulating MPs’ pay, pensions and business costs. Section 4A of the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 requires us to review MPs’ salaries in the first year of each parliament, which we are currently undertaking following the General Election in December 2019.

We are consulting on the right approach to use in making periodic adjustments to MPs’ salaries, and we have proposed continuing to link MPs’ salaries to changes in public sector salaries, as published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the approach we have used since 2015, when we concluded an extensive review of how to set and update MPs’ pay in a way that was fair to both MPs and taxpayers.

At this stage, we do not know what the amount of any change to MPs’ salaries resulting from this approach would be, as ONS has yet to publish the relevant data. Our proposal is that whatever the rise, or fall, in the benchmark, that would determine the change to MPs’ pay from April next year.

The consultation was launched on 8 October and closes on 6 November. You can read the full consultation document here.

The consultation document also sets out, in the annexes, the current methodology for making adjustments to MPs’ pay. The IPSA Board will consider all responses received before making a decision, which will be published later this year.