MPs’ business costs
Claire Hughes
IPSA paid £203,129 against 192 published rows for Claire Hughes between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Bangor Aberconwy CC. 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, 2025-26
73 claims, £22,332 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.
| Category | What it covers | Claims | Paid | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office costs | Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage. | 62 | £15,732 | 70.4% |
| Miscellaneous | Claims IPSA records under none of the headings above. Called “Miscellaneous Expenses” until 2018-19. | 11 | £6,600 | 29.6% |
Every year in the register
Claire Hughes’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2024-25 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.
| Year | Claims | Staffing | Office costs | Accommodation | Travel | Miscellaneous | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 119 | £128,234 | £19,914 | £26,489 | £5,385 | £774 | £180,797 |
| 2025-26 | 73 | — | £15,732 | — | — | £6,600 | £22,332 |
A year in which Claire Hughes 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, 2025-26
The cost types IPSA records inside each heading, largest first by what it paid.
Office costs
| Cost type | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Software & applications | 12 | £5,029 |
| Maintenance, Redecorations & Repairs | 7 | £3,483 |
| Landline phone & internet - rental & usage | 4 | £1,499 |
| Utilities | 5 | £1,372 |
| Equipment - purchase | 11 | £1,144 |
| Translation services (Welsh Language) | 1 | £700 |
Miscellaneous
| Cost type | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Translation services (Welsh Language) | 11 | £6,600 |
Largest claims, 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.
| Date | Category | Cost type | Description | Claimed | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 September 2025 | Office Costs | Software & applications | MONDAY.COM | £1,584 | £1,584 |
| 22 July 2025 | Office Costs | Software & applications | ELECTED TECHNOLOGIES | £1,476 | £1,476 |
| 18 November 2025 | Office Costs | Maintenance, Redecorations & Repairs | MORE THAN BEDS | £1,380 | £1,380 |
| 25 September 2025 | Office Costs | Landline phone & internet - rental & usage | Internet | £1,283 | £1,283 |
| 12 January 2026 | Office Costs | Utilities | Electricity | £844 | £844 |
| 21 September 2024 | Office Costs | Software & applications | MONDAY.COM [200011800-165] | £753 | £753 |
| 22 January 2026 | Office Costs | Translation services (Welsh Language) | PAYPAL T2TOMOS | £700 | £700 |
| 23 December 2025 | Miscellaneous | Translation services (Welsh Language) | PAYPAL T2TOMOS | £600 | £600 |
| 4 November 2025 | Miscellaneous | Translation services (Welsh Language) | Welsh translation | £600 | £600 |
| 6 October 2025 | Miscellaneous | Translation services (Welsh Language) | Welsh Translation | £600 | £600 |
| 16 September 2025 | Miscellaneous | Translation services (Welsh Language) | Welsh Translations | £600 | £600 |
| 2 September 2025 | Miscellaneous | Translation services (Welsh Language) | Welsh Translations | £600 | £600 |
| 14 August 2025 | Miscellaneous | Translation services (Welsh Language) | Welsh Translations - August | £600 | £600 |
| 18 July 2025 | Miscellaneous | Translation services (Welsh Language) | Welsh Translation - June | £600 | £600 |
| 18 July 2025 | Miscellaneous | Translation services (Welsh Language) | Welsh Translation - July | £600 | £600 |
Claims refused and money repaid, 2025-26
1 claim carries an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £75 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 Claire Hughes 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 · Claire Hughes’s register of interests and votes · Sources