IPSA publishes new data on MPs’ business costs

Today, IPSA published details of all claims processed in the period from 1 August to 30 September 2023.

Business costs are claims made by MPs to cover the costs they incur while carrying out their parliamentary and constituency duties.

MPs can only claim for costs related to their parliamentary work, and not for personal costs, such as food and drink during their normal working day. Claims are only reimbursed if supported by evidence, for example, invoices, and are within the budgets IPSA provides MPs.

Most of MPs’ expenditure – almost 80% in 2022-23 – is for employing staff to support constituents and other parliamentary duties.

ENDS

For more details contact IPSA's Press Office.

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Notes to editors

1. You can find the data IPSA has published today by downloading the Individual business costs data 2023-2024 spreadsheet on this page of our website, under the Individual business costs heading. You can also view claims relating to an individual MP by searching their name or constituency on our website.

2. Today's data cannot point to a trend or a pattern, as costs for MPs vary month by month. IPSA's annual publication, covering business costs submitted by MPs in 2022-2023, shows that almost 80% of MPs’ business costs go toward paying their staff.

3. MPs’ constituencies have a range of different characteristics for example size, population, urban or rural landscape, and distance from Westminster, which makes comparisons between the data for each MP difficult.

4. Following advice from the House of Commons, IPSA is no longer publishing data relating to travel costs on a bi-monthly basis. Instead, this will be published as an aggregated cost for each MP as part of its annual publication.

5. 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

• to determine MPs’ pay and pension arrangements

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

6. IPSA is independent of Parliament and the Government. This allows it to make decisions about the rules on business costs and on MPs’ pay ourselves, without interference. You can find out more about IPSA's role and responsibilities on our website.

7. The Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs (‘the Scheme’) governs what MPs can and cannot claim. We review our rules regularly and consult the public when we do so.

8. 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