Parliamentary Expenses 2005/2006

MPs’ offices are entitled to money to pay for staff and office running costs. These are rather confusingly called expenses but they do not go into the pocket of MPs and can only be spent on actual costs. Some expenses are taxable.

Below is a detailed breakdown of my parliamentary expenses for the 2005/06 allowance period.

My staffing costs are lower than average as I was only elected in May 2005 (the financial year runs from April to April) and I did not have a full staff team until September.

Cost of staying away from main home – £0
London Supplement – £2,360 (this is London Weighting)
Office running costs (called ‘Incidental Expenses Provision’ by the House of Commons authorities) – £25,922
Staffing Costs – £66,963 (including salaries and employers National Insurance contributions)
Travel – £899
Staff travel – £0
Stationary (in addition to basic office running costs) – £1,970
Postage costs – £4,754
IT (computers for staff) – £867
Other costs – £0

Explanatory notes

Both 2005/06 and 2006/07 are untypical years. As a new member in 2005 I did not incur full year costs in my first year. I was able to transfer the surpluses to 2006/07 which will make next year’s total figures considerably higher than a normal year. Therefore my first standard year will be 2007/08.

Further information on Members’ allowances can be found on the parliament website www.parliament.uk

Actual allowances for 2005/06 and 2006/07:

2005/06 – Incidental Expenses Provision (IEP) maximum £20,000
2005/06 – Staffing Allowance maximum £84,081

Money carried over from staff budget 2005/06 – £8,400 to make total office costs allowance (IEP) 2005/06 – £28,400

2006/07
Incidental Expenses Provision carry forward from 2005/06 – £2,000
2006/07 – Office costs allowance (IEP) maximum – £22,000