IPSA publishes Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16

Date published: 19 July 2016

IPSA has today published its Annual Report and Accounts for the 2015-16 financial year.

The report covers the key activities undertaken by IPSA during the financial year 2015-16, including:

  • our work during the General Election 2015, to ensure a smooth financial transition for MPs between one Parliament and the next;

  • the planning work for a wide-ranging programme of improvements to our support of MPs and their staff;

  • our consultation and implementation of our determination on MPs’ pay; and

  • the outcome of the Court of Appeal case on whether IPSA was required to publish the redacted images of MPs’ receipts in response to Freedom of Information requests.

Also included is a separate report by the Compliance Officer for IPSA which details the work undertaken by his office during the financial year.

IPSA’s Chair, Ruth Evans, said:

“Our 2015-16 Annual Report and Accounts show that IPSA is effectively regulating MPs’ pay and business costs. Last year, we took difficult decisions on pay and pensions, while supporting MPs effectively through the May 2015 General Election.

"The Report highlights how IPSA’s improvement programme will build on this strong base both to improve the support we provide to MPs and to assure the public that taxpayers’ money is spent appropriately. As IPSA’s new Chair, I look forward to engaging with MPs and others in making IPSA a world-class regulator.”

ENDS

For more details contact IPSA's Press Office: 020 7811 6462.

Follow us on Twitter: @ipsauk Notes to Editors:

  1. The Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 states: “As soon as practicable after the end of each financial year, the IPSA must prepare and the Speaker must lay before each House of Parliament a report about the performance of the IPSA's functions during that financial year.”

  2. The report is Sir Ian Kennedy’s last as IPSA’s Chair. Ruth Evans took over the position of Chair on 1 June 2016.

  3. The Compliance Officer for IPSA, whose separate report can be found at Part V of the report, is an independent office holder, established as a separate public authority from IPSA under the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 (as amended by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010).