IPSA publishes MPs’ Business Costs for June – July 2020 and Consultation on the Administration of MPs’ Staff Pay Increases

Date published: 12 November 2020

As part of its routine publication of MPs’ business costs, IPSA has today released details of all claims, paid, repaid and unpaid, processed in the period from June to July 2020.

Visit our MPs' staffing & business costs page for details of all claims, including those published today.

The data reflects claims processed in this two month period and should not be interpreted as a trend or pattern. MPs’ constituencies have a range a different characteristics for example; size, population, urban or rural landscape and distance from Westminster, which makes comparisons between the data difficult.

The data for individual claims is stored on the website by the date on which a cost is incurred. Some travel claims reflect the date on which a transaction was processed rather than the date on which a journey was made.

Also today, IPSA is publishing details of a new consultation. This will look at whether to introduce new arrangement for automatic salary increases for MPs' staff members each year, on an opt-out basis. Read the details of the consultation.

ENDS

For more details contact IPSA's Press Office: communications@theipsa.org.uk

Follow us on Twitter: @ipsauk

Notes to Editors:

  1. IPSA was created in 2009 by the Parliamentary Standards Act. The Act was amended in 2010 by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act. Together they gave IPSA three main responsibilities:

    • To regulate MPs’ business costs and expenses

    • To determine MPs’ pay and pension arrangements

    • To provide financial support to MPs in carrying out their parliamentary functions.

  2. IPSA is independent of Parliament and the Government. This allows us to take decisions about the rules on business costs and expenses and on MPs’ pay ourselves, without interference.

  3. The Scheme of MPs' Business Costs and Expenses ('the Scheme') governs what MPs can and cannot claim for. We review our rules regularly and consult the public when we do so.

  4. Every two months we publish around 25,000 claims for costs and expenses by MPs and their staff. Once a year we publish aggregate data for MPs’ spending and other aspects of their activity.

  5. The next annual publication of MPs’ total spend data will be on 21 January 2021. This is later than some previous years due to the extensions to deadlines that we gave to MPs, at the height of the pandemic, to make claims and submit evidence.

  6. Repayments are made to IPSA by MPs and third parties for a variety of reasons. These include: refunding items for which an MP no longer wishes to claim; refunding payment card transactions for which an MP does not wish to claim; and where an MP has received a rebate or refund from a third party, for example on their business rates or utility bills.