MPs’ business costs

Chris Philp

IPSA paid £1,747,180 against 453 published rows for Chris Philp between 2015-16 and 2025-26 as the member for Croydon South BC. These are the costs of running an office and employing staff under IPSA’s rules. They are not salary, and the largest part of them is wages IPSA pays to the member’s employees rather than money the member receives.

By category, 2015-16 to 2025-26

453 claims, £1,747,180 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.

CategoryWhat it coversClaimsPaidShare
StaffingThe salaries and employment costs of the people an MP employs to run their office and casework. IPSA pays these directly; they are not money an MP receives.37£1,622,17592.8%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.416£125,0057.2%

Every year in the register

Chris Philp’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2015-16 and the last is 2025-26. Figures are not adjusted for inflation, so a rise between two distant years is partly a rise in prices. Select a year to read it on its own.

YearClaimsStaffingOffice costsTotal
2015-1648£110,509£6,598£117,107
2016-1738£132,026£3,559£135,585
2017-1851£141,258£10,968£152,226
2018-1950£154,084£19,207£173,290
2019-2063£162,494£17,424£179,919
2020-2160£180,230£15,077£195,307
2021-2249£171,533£15,427£186,960
2022-2324£180,566£12,452£193,018
2023-2435£183,334£10,556£193,890
2024-2515£206,141£9,458£215,599
2025-2620£4,279£4,279

A year in which Chris Philp joined or left the House part-way through is a part year, and is not comparable with a full one.

What each category is made of, 2015-16 to 2025-26

The cost types IPSA records inside each heading, largest first by what it paid.

Staffing

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Payroll10£1,603,670
Pooled Services: Direct3£8,539
Bought-in services3£5,000
Professional Services (Staff.)1£2,470
Pooled staffing services1£1,715
Staff Training Costs1£570

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Venue hire, meetings & surgeries6£24,080
Pooled staffing services6£18,992
Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting8£14,798
Stationery Purchase125£12,372
Stationery & printing139£11,167
Bought-in services5£10,480

Largest claims, 2015-16 to 2025-26

The 15 rows IPSA paid most against, with IPSA’s own description of each. Read the description before the amount: IPSA publishes most of a member’s staffing as one row for the whole year — “Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the ⟨year⟩ year” — so the largest row here is usually a year of wages for the member’s employees and not something bought.

DateCategoryCost typeDescriptionClaimedPaid
31 March 2025StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2024-25 year£202,526£202,526
31 March 2023StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year£180,556£180,556
31 March 2021StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2020-21 year£180,230£180,230
31 March 2024StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2023-24 year£180,081£180,081
31 March 2022StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2021-22 year£171,533£171,533
31 March 2020StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2019-20 year£162,446£162,446
31 March 2019StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2018-19 year£150,984£150,984
31 March 2018StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2017-18 year£138,554£138,554
31 March 2017StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2016-17 year£129,291£129,291
31 March 2016StaffingPayrollTotal payroll costs for the 2015-16 year£107,469£107,469
10 January 2025Office CostsVenue hire, meetings & surgeries£4,400£4,400
18 January 2024Office CostsVenue hire, meetings & surgeries£4,400£4,400
4 January 2023Office CostsVenue hire, meetings & surgeries£4,150£4,150
25 January 2022Office CostsVenue hire, meetings & surgeries£3,850£3,850
18 January 2021Office CostsVenue hire, meetings & surgeries£3,640£3,640

Claims refused and money repaid, 2015-16 to 2025-26

3 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £593 repaid. A refusal is not a finding of wrongdoing — most are claims outside the scheme’s rules, or submitted without the evidence IPSA requires — and it is shown because leaving it out would show only the money that went out.

What this page does not show

Whether any of it was justified. IPSA accepted these claims under its own rules and the register records what was paid, not whether it should have been. A large total is not a finding about the member.

Nor how Chris Philp compares with another member. After staffing the largest headings are accommodation and travel, and both are decided mostly by where a constituency is: a member several hundred miles from Westminster is eligible for costs a member with a London seat is not. Two members’ totals are two sets of rules as much as two sets of choices, and the length of service differs too.

It is also not pay. IPSA sets and publishes MPs’ salaries separately and they are not in this register; the staffing figure here is the salaries of the member’s employees.

All MPs’ business costs · Chris Philp’s register of interests and votes · Sources