MPs’ Annual Business Costs for 2018-19 and Annual Assurance Report

Date published: 19 December 2019

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority today published figures for business costs and expenses incurred by MPs in the 2018-19 financial year.

Spending on all budgets was £119.9 million. This is up two per cent on the £117.3 million spent in 2017-18.

This overall sum included:

  • Office Costs – £12.4m, up one per cent from £12.3m in 2017-18

  • Staffing – £91.4m, up 5.5 per cent from £86.5m in 2017-18

  • Accommodation – £8.9m, up six per cent from £8.4m in 2017-18

  • Travel & Subsistence – £5.7m, up 39% from £4.1m in 2017-18

  • Other – £46k for costs not covered by the Scheme of MPs' Business Costs and Expenses such as post-election rental payments and removal costs, down from £284k in 2017-18

  • Winding-up budget: £77k, down 98% from £4.5m in 2017-18

  • Security – £3.5m, down 23% from the £4.5m spent in 2017-18

  • Disability – £170k up 38% from £123k in 2017-18

IPSA has also published its Annual Report and Accounts and the annual report on assurance for 2018-19. This year, the annual report on assurance summarised work conducted on the subletting of constituency offices and claims for professional services. It details the processes behind up to 190,000 claims for MPs’ business costs and expenses each financial year – an average of up to 15,000 per month.

IPSA’s Interim Chair, Richard Lloyd, said:

“Throughout the year, IPSA quietly and effectively carried out its core business of making salary, business costs and eligible expenses payments to 650 MPs and their 3,750 staff. In recent days we have been supporting 155 newly-elected Members of Parliament to get used to their new roles, and helping those former MPs who are leaving to wind up their offices.

”Through IPSA, taxpayers can be assured that MPs properly use the public resources given to them, within transparent and robust rules. IPSA is now acknowledged as a world leader in its field, and makes a vital contribution to promoting confidence in the daily work of our democracy.”

ENDS

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

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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. 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.