Connected parties employed by MPs

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 150 connected parties employed by 150 MPs. The total annual sum of these employees’ gross pay[1] is £3,693,250.45.

You may be aware that as part of our annual publication of each MP’s expenditure over the financial year, we publish details of connected parties employed by MPs. The 2015-16 annual aggregate of MPs’ business costs and expenses will be published in November 2016 on an improved website which is currently being developed. This year, the information will include the total annual pay for connected parties employed during the financial year.

[1] This figure excludes national insurance costs.