Overtime paid to connected parties employed by MPs in the 2010-2015 Parliament

Under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘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.

Staffing Expenditure may only be paid for the salary of one employee who is a connected party, unless an MP employed more than one connected party on 7 May 2010.

At the end of each financial year, we publish information on each MPs’ expenditure over the course of the year. This includes information relating to any connected parties employed during the year, including their name, job title, salary band and whether they were employed full or part time. This information can be found on our website via this link.

Overtime

Where a staff member employed by an MP works hours additional to their contracted hours, overtime payments may be paid from the Staffing Expenditure budget.

Overtime is typically paid to part-time members of staff at their standard hourly rate, until their full-time equivalent hours are reached. For full-time staff, the overtime rate is typically paid at 1.5 times the hourly rate. In the figures, below, we have separated additional hours worked by part-time staff members from overtime hours worked by full-time staff (and part-time staff exceeding their full-time equivalent hours).

Overtime may also be paid to existing staff members who are providing cover for staff members who are absent due to long term sick leave or parental leave, for example. In these instances, overtime may be paid through the contingency fund where the MP has notified IPSA of the need to cover staff absence.

Information requested

Please find below the total number of hours paid in overtime to connected parties during the 2010-2015 Parliament. The total number of hours paid is 3766.74 and the total value of all the overtime payments paid to connected parties was £77,381.14.

Alongside the total number of hours paid, we have broken down this figure by those hours paid as regular overtime from Staffing Expenditure and those paid from as contingency payments to cover staff absence.

[1] MPs may apply for contingency funding to help cover unanticipated events, such as staff illness or maternity leave. In such instances, existing staff members may work overtime to provide staffing cover.

[2] ‘Additional Hours’ are overtime hours works by part-time members of staff in excess of their normal working hours and up to the normal working hours of full-time staff.