MPs’ Annual Business Costs for 2019-20, Annual Report and Annual Review of Assurance

Date published: 21 January 2021

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority today published figures for business costs incurred by MPs for their parliamentary duties in the 2019-20 financial year. As this year covers the 2019 General Election, there are costs related to over 800 MPs (both new and non-returned MPs).

Spending on all budgets was £127.7 million, 86% of which was for office and staffing costs. This is up 6.47% on the £119.9 million spent in 2018-19, due to the additional costs related to the 2019 General Election. Compliance with the rules for MPs’ business costs was at 99.97%.

This overall sum included:

  • Office Costs – £12.9m, up 4 per cent from £12.4m in 2018-19

  • Staffing – £90.1m, down 1.2 per cent from £91.4m in 2018-19

  • Accommodation – £8.9m, down 0.4 per cent from £8.9m in 2018-19

  • Travel & Subsistence – £5.5m, down 3.4 per cent from £5.7m in 2018-19

  • Security – £3.3m, down 3.7 per cent from the £3.5m spent in 2018-19

  • Disability – £131k down 22.8 per cent from £170k in 2018-19

IPSA has also published its Annual Report and Accounts and Annual Review of Assurance for 2019-20.

IPSA’s Interim Chair, Richard Lloyd, said:

“The events of 2019-20 had a significant impact on Parliament and the work of IPSA.

“Preparations for a possible General Election began in summer 2019 and IPSA played a key role in introducing new MPs to Parliament following the election on 12 December. We also enabled those MPs who stood down or lost their seats to wind up their Parliamentary business.

“In March we moved to full working from home for all our staff and put in place a package of practical support for MPs and their staff to help them continue to serve their constituents during the Covid crisis.

"Every month over 4,000 MPs and staff have their salaries paid and business costs reimbursed, within the rules set independently by IPSA. It’s good for confidence in our system that compliance with the rules is very high, at 99.97%.

“Through IPSA, taxpayers can be assured that public money has been spent appropriately by Members of Parliament and that we have helped them to serve their constituents during the most difficult of times.”

ENDS

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

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Notes to Editors:

  1. The annual publication of MPs’ staffing and business costs for the financial year 2019/20 reflects MPs elected to Parliament in the 2019 General Election, as well as those who stood down or who were not returned. In addition to there being significantly more data to publish than usual, this annual publication was also the first to be undertaken following the move to our new IPSA online system and processed in the context of Covid 19 which has had a significant impact on the way IPSA and MPs and their offices have been working. This means that we are publishing information that, in a small number of instances, is liable to further amendment post-publication.

  2. Figures used in the press release above are actual and have not been adjusted. They may be subject to minor revisions.

  3. We have also published our routine bi-monthly publication of MPs’ costs for all claims processed during August and September 2020.

  4. The overall spend does not include the amount spent on MPs’ Security and Disability Assistance. These figures are published separately as these costs are not attributed to individual MPs.

  5. Travel includes travel by MPs, their staff and their dependants.

  6. The total spend figures also include costs for the staff absence budget which covers the cost of MPs’ staff on maternity, paternity or adoption leave or the costs of staff who are on long-term sick leave.

  7. The next publication of MPs’ business costs will be on Thursday 11 March 2021.