Connected parties at November 13th 2015 and total annual sum of salaries

Request

I would like to request the following information about "connected parties"

A) The total number of MPs employing connected parties as at Friday November 13, 2015.

B) The total number of connected parties employed by MPs as at Friday November 13, 2015.

C) The total annual pay bill for connected parties as at Friday November 13, 2015.


Response

IPSA holds the information that you request.

Under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), Staffing Expenditure may only be claimed for the salary of one employee who is a connected party, unless an MP employed more than one connected party on 7 May 2010. You can find a full copy of the Scheme on our website, by following this link.

For the purposes of the Scheme, a connected party is defined as:

  1. a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner of the member;

  2. parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece of the member or of a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner of the member; or

  3. a body corporate, a firm or a trust with which the MP is connected as defined in section 252 of the Companies Act 2006.

As at the most recent available date, there were 132 connected parties employed by 132 MPs. In the last month, the total sum of these employees’ gross pay[1] was £294,338.27, which gives an annual equivalent of £3,532,059.24.

[1] This figure excludes national insurance costs.

Ref:
CAS-34164
Disclosure:
11 December 2015
Categories:
MPs' CONNECTED PARTIES
Exemptions Applied:
None