Christopher Chope's connected parties

IPSA holds the information that you request.

Members of Parliament are the employers of their staff, and as such, are responsible for the individuals they employ and salaries they pay, within the rules specified by IPSA[1]. 

The rules regulating business costs and expenses claimable by Members of Parliament are governed by the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), which can be viewed via this link to our website. 

The Scheme allows for staffing expenditure to be claimed for the salary of one employee who is a connected party[2].  The term ‘connected party’ is defined in the Scheme 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.

MPs must complete a connected party declaration when employing staff members, stating whether the employee is or is not a connected party, as defined by the Scheme. 

For your reference, we publish annualised data that includes the names of all MPs who have declared to IPSA that they employ a connected party alongside the name of that connected party and their salary band.  This annualised data can be found via this link to our publication website.  As you will see from this data, Christopher Chope employs one connected party, Christine Chope, as Secretary, on a salary that falls within the salary band of £45,000 - £49,999, which complies with the rules specified within the Scheme, mentioned above.

You requested information on the location of Mr Chope’s wife’s working location.  The information we hold on individuals employed by Members of Parliament indicate only whether for the purposes of employment their main work location is in London or outside London.  According to our records, Mrs Chope’s main, but not sole, location of work is outside London.

[1] Individuals who were employed by MPs prior to the establishment of IPSA in May 2010 may retain their previous contracts, unless they have chosen to transfer to an IPSA contract.

[2] Paragraph 7.15 of the Scheme states that if an MP employed more than one connected party prior to 7 May 2010, the MP may continue to employ these connected parties until the parties in question cease to be employed or otherwise to provide staffing assistance.