Average number of employees in Parliament by political party

Request

I am trying to find out the average number of paid staff that MP’s from different parties have in the House of Commons. Is there any way I can find this out?

I want to be able to classify the parties as:

The average number of paid full-time employees in the personal offices of MPs in the lower house of the national parliament at the end of the calendar year (for part-time staff use full-time equivalents)?

  • 0

  • 1 - 3

  • 4-8

  • more than 8

  • unknown


Response

IPSA does not hold the information that you request.

The MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’) allows MPs to claim Staffing Expenditure to meet the cost of provision of staff to support the MP in carrying out his or her Parliamentary functions, up to the annual budget of £144,000 for London Area MPs or £137,200 for non-London Area MPs.

We do not hold records by political party or by the work location of individuals within London.  The information that we hold only relates to whether individuals are located in London or outside London.  For those individuals that we have recorded as being located in London, the information we hold does not allow us to separately identify those individuals that may be located in a London constituency office from those that may be located in the Parliamentary office of an MP.

For further information, however, we are able to provide general information that may assist you.  A total of 3,242 individuals, as of 19 February 2014, work in MPs offices, either in London or outside London[1].

Out of those individuals, 1,362 work in London, either in Westminster or in London constituency offices, and 1,676 work outside London in constituency offices.  IPSA’s records run from May 2010; we do not therefore hold the working location of the remaining 204 individuals.

[1] Schedule 2 of the Scheme lists the constituencies in the London Area.

Ref:
F1314-230
Disclosure:
19 February 2014
Categories:
MPs' STAFFING
Exemptions Applied: