Expenses
EXPENSES MANIFESTO:
My principle on expenses is to claim for items that are directly related to my work as a constituency MP. I claim expenses under the following headings:
- Travel between Westminster office and constituency (Although I sometimes buy 1st class train tickets in order to have a guaranteed seat and table to work at, I do not claim more than the full standard class fare, I pay the difference myself)
- Travel (car) within Cumbria between constituency events
- Holding and advertising constituency surgeries.
- Half the cost of rented accommodation
- Staff in Constituency Office and Westminster (their salaries and travel)
- Parliamentary research services for constituents’ queries
- Computers, stationery and telephones for office
I pay for all additional expenses personally. MPs are entitled to claim for taxi fares and for meals after late night sittings, for TVs in constituency offices, for a proportion of utilities bills etc, but I do not claim for any of these things. I also do not claim (and instead pay personally) for hire of extra research and constituency support staff, for additional travel to the constituency, for conference support. I also pay for all calls made from my personal mobile phone.
To see a detailed breakdown of all my expenses claimed (as published on 3rd February 2011), please click on the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority link here. This link will always be available on the website. It will be updated quarterly when IPSA publish the expense claims of MPs.
I note that IPSA has reprinted the August reimbursements which I already explained in a Radio Cumbria interview in December. Just for clarification there are a number of things for which MPs are entitled to claim which I did not wish to claim. In three cases my office automatically submitted claims for legitimate items which are allowed but which I did not want to claim. These are for advertising of constituency surgeries, for hire of venues for meeting constituents at agricultural shows (a Penrith and the Border tradition) and for videos of Parliamentary speeches.
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A note on my current expenses: The first claim in this Parliament will be higher than the future monthly average, due to the high initial costs of establishing an office (bulk buying of new computers and software systems, business cards, stationary etc.) The published details are also skewed by those MPs who did not manage to get their expenses submitted in time, but instead used the IPSA grace period, and so will not have any claims until October 1st. Although it is therefore not possible to make a realistic comparison between MPs now, it should be possible by the end of the year. The “IPSA” parliamentary site records me as having claimed £3877.50 twice for Parliamentary Research, (this was due to misunderstanding the new evidence form system and using a claim form to reconcile an advance form). This was repaid as soon as the error was identified. The total claim, therefore, is £3877.50 less than IPSA has published. The total amount should read £10,506.04 |