MP's salaries and IPSA salaries

I will begin with an explanation which should address questions 1, 2 and 4.

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.

The consultation document also sets out, in the annexes, the current methodology for making adjustments to MPs’ pay.

Anyone is welcome to submit a response to the consultation and this is a formal way in which the public can express their views. The IPSA Board will consider all responses received before making a decision, which will be published later this year.

You also asked about the salaries of IPSA staff. The details of senior staff salaries and pay scales are published in our Annual Reports; the reports also explain the mechanism by which senior staff salaries are reviewed.

We are due to publish the Annual Report for 2019-20 at the start of 2021. However previous reports can be found on the website.

The salaries for IPSA’s non-senior staff are reviewed every two years and information about pay scales is published at https://www.theipsa.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/

Staff salary information is therefore subject to a Refusal Notice under section 21 of the FOIA, because it is available on our website.