Staffing arrangements of Iain Stewart

Request

As a citizen of Milton Keynes I wish to inquire why this MP [Iain Stewart] is claiming £137,000 for staff. How many members of staff does he have?  At the 'living wage' rate of £7.20 an hour that is quite a lot. (I do hope he pays his staff the same wage aqs many of his constituents are paid) and if not, please explain why this is. Milton Keynes is not that big yet we have north and south MPs. This makes staff costing nearly £300,000.


Response

Under the MPs' Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses ('the Scheme'), Staffing Expenditure is provided to meet the costs incurred in the provision of staff to assist with the performance of an MP's parliamentary functions. For 2016-17, the Staffing Expenditure budget for non-London MPs is £141,400. This includes staff salaries, employers' contributions to National Insurance and employers' contributions to pension schemes.

At the end of each financial year, we publish information on each MP's staffing arrangements. This includes the job titles and working arrangements of staff employed by the MP during that financial year. This can be found each MP's page, under 'Other Financial Information'. Mr Stewart's page can be found via this link.

Salary ranges and job responsibilities for each role can be found here.

Information relating to the 2016-17 financial year will be published at the end of the financial year.

Ref:
CAS-71752
Disclosure:
10 February 2017
Categories:
MPs' STAFFING
Exemptions Applied:
None