What’s democracy worth? IPSA wants to hear from the public to shape MPs’ funding

Members of the public are being given the chance to be included in a select group of people who will form a Citizens’ Forum on the future of MPs’ pay and how their parliamentary duties are funded.

In partnership with New Citizen Project and the Sortition Foundation, letters will be dropping on a randomly selected group of doorsteps across the United Kingdom in the next few weeks, inviting people to sign up to be considered for a small representative group who will meet across four sessions in September to hear from expert speakers and discuss how IPSA should fund and pay MPs.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is the independent regulator which sets MPs’ pay and provides the funding MPs need to run their office.

IPSA wants to talk to citizens from all walks of life about the importance of democracy, and how it is funded. As well as the Forum, IPSA will also engage with the public online and through interested groups to undertake its most ambitious listening exercise since it was created in 2010. More detail on this national conversation will be released shortly.

The Citizens’ Forum is part of a wider mechanism by which IPSA is consulting on the funding of MPs and their offices, which includes input from academics, journalists, and other experts under the theme of What’s Democracy Worth.

Richard Lloyd, IPSA’s Chair, said:

“We want to support a diverse and representative Parliament, where being an MP is not reserved for those wealthy enough to fund it themselves. This is why we believe MPs need to be paid fairly and to be given the appropriate level of funding to be able to run their office.

“We know people care about our democracy, but we also know trust in democracy remains low, while levels of abuse and intimidation towards candidates and MPs are rising.

“We want to have an honest and open conversation on what democracy is worth to you and get your views on how we should fund MPs.

“If you are one of the people who receives a letter inviting you to take part in the Forum, we hope you’ll consider this a great opportunity to share your views.”

Most people aged 18 and over are eligible to take part in the Forum, and won’t need any prior knowledge, or interest in politics. All that’s required is a willingness to listen to the information presented and share opinions with IPSA and the other people taking part.

The outcome of the Citizens’ Forum and IPSA’s wider listening exercise will be presented to IPSA’s Board, who will consider them as part of their decision on how MPs’ pay and funding should be set from 2026 onwards.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. The Citizens’ Forum will follow an established public engagement process used all over the world. It brings together a group of people selected by lottery, who broadly represent the entire UK population. The people who attend will learn about the issues and then discuss them with one another. They will then come to their conclusions about what should happen. 

2. 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 

• to determine MPs’ pay and pension arrangements

• to provide financial support to MPs in carrying out their parliamentary functions  IPSA is independent of Parliament and the Government. This allows it to make decisions about the rules on business costs and on MPs’ pay ourselves, without interference.

3. IPSA is independent of Parliament and the Government. This allows it to make decisions about the rules on business costs and on MPs’ pay ourselves, without interference.

4. New Citizen Project is an organisation which specialises in participation strategy and design, and has been commissioned by IPSA to design and deliver the Citizens' Forum. They have run a number of deliberative democracy projects including RSPCA’s Citizens’ Assembly on the Future of Animal Welfare. They also designed the overarching RAPID Democracy framework for the People’s Plan for Nature, a pioneering deliberative project commissioned by RSPB, National Trust and WWF in 2022.

5. The Sortition Foundation will be running the participants’ recruitment process. It is a not-for-profit organisation, that specialise in recruiting for these kinds of events. They select people by lottery, in a way that is representative of the wider population. 10,000 addresses in the UK will receive a letter inviting them to take part in the Forum.