MPs’ Business Costs and Expenses for April – September 2020, and Payment Card Assurance Report

Date published: 13 February 2020

As part of its routine publication of MPs’ business costs and expenses, IPSA has today released details of claims, paid and unpaid, processed in the six month period from April to September 2019.

visit our MPs' staffing and business costs page for details of all claims, including those published today.

IPSA regularly looks at various aspects of its work. A new report published today sets out the findings of IPSA’s review into use of payment cards by MPs. IPSA provides a government procurement card, known as a payment card, to MPs to support the funding of their business costs.

These cards support MPs in carrying out their parliamentary functions by reducing the cash flow problems caused by waiting for reimbursement.

The card has a monthly credit limit of £4,000 and each individual transaction is limited to £2,000. The report looked at how the cards have been used. Read this and previous assurance reports.

ENDS

For more details contact IPSA's Press Office: communications@theipsa.org.uk

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Notes to Editors:

  1. IPSA was created in 2009 by the Parliamentary Standards Act. The Act was amended in 2010 by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act. Together they gave IPSA three main responsibilities:

    • To regulate MPs’ business costs and expenses

    • To determine MPs’ pay and pension arrangements

    • To provide financial support to MPs in carrying out their parliamentary functions.

  2. IPSA is independent of Parliament and the Government. This allows us to take decisions about the rules on business costs and expenses and on MPs’ pay ourselves, without interference.

  3. The Scheme of MPs' Business Costs and Expenses ('the Scheme') governs what MPs can and cannot claim for. We review our rules regularly and consult the public when we do so.

  4. Every two months we publish around 25,000 claims for costs and expenses by MPs and their staff. Once a year we publish aggregate data for MPs’ spending and other aspects of their activity.