MPs’ business costs

Damian Hinds

IPSA paid £2,122,778 against 1,480 published rows for Damian Hinds between 2010-11 and 2025-26 as the member for East Hampshire 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, 2019-20

91 claims, £153,495 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
Staffing	The 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.	1	£115,726	75.4%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	66	£7,904	5.1%
Accommodation	The cost of somewhere to stay for an MP whose constituency is far enough from Westminster that IPSA's rules allow it. An MP representing a London seat is not eligible on the same terms.	11	£26,600	17.3%
Travel	Journeys between the constituency and Westminster and within the constituency. Until 2018-19 IPSA published one travel category; from 2019-20 it publishes travel by the MP, by staff and by a dependant separately.	13	£3,265	2.1%

Every year in the register

Damian Hinds’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2010-11 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	Total
2010-11	66	£59,155	£1,766	£11,755	£1,201	£73,877
2011-12	113	£88,237	£3,505	£10,758	£1,966	£104,466
2012-13	115	£79,229	£3,756	£6,198	£3,140	£92,322
2013-14	106	£78,935	£3,911	£5,268	£4,769	£92,882
2014-15	83	£72,798	£2,509	£9,845	£3,411	£88,563
2015-16	101	£86,220	£4,251	£10,483	£3,705	£104,659
2016-17	75	£100,689	£3,132	£9,640	£3,893	£117,353
2017-18	85	£103,345	£4,282	£12,176	£2,992	£122,796
2018-19	59	£115,933	£4,318	£24,938	£3,390	£148,579
2019-20	91	£115,726	£7,904	£26,600	£3,265	£153,495
2020-21	112	£149,534	£7,287	£31,200	£1,577	£189,598
2021-22	79	£151,040	£4,016	£31,045	£1,841	£187,942
2022-23	74	£157,002	£3,378	£34,836	£2,571	£197,786
2023-24	158	£181,506	£4,967	£35,105	£3,589	£225,166
2024-25	132	£177,198	£4,980	£33,323	£4,286	£219,786
2025-26	31	—	£3,508	—	—	£3,508

A year in which Damian Hinds 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, 2019-20

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£115,726

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Pooled staffing services	1	£3,142
Software & applications	2	£1,500
Equipment - purchase	4	£1,259
Venue hire, meetings & surgeries	22	£637
Mobile telephone - contract & usage	17	£439
Stationery & printing	12	£432

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	11	£26,600

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rail	3	£2,052
Mileage - car	5	£1,056
Parking	4	£147
Other public transport	1	£10

Largest claims, 2019-20

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
31 March 2020	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2019-20 year	£115,726	£115,726
15 May 2019	Office Costs	Pooled staffing services	Policy Research Unit (Conservative)	£3,142	£3,142
18 March 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
19 February 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,400	£2,400
15 January 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,400	£2,400
20 December 2019	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,400	£2,400
15 November 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,400	£2,400
17 October 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,400	£2,400
18 September 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,400	£2,400
16 August 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,400	£2,400
17 July 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,400	£2,400
19 June 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,400	£2,400
17 May 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,400	£2,400
30 July 2019	Office Costs	Equipment - purchase	Computer, laptop, PC, tablet & accessories	£1,146	£1,146
31 March 2020	Staff Travel	Rail	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£1,121	£1,121

Claims refused and money repaid, 2019-20

1 claim carries an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £20 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 Damian Hinds 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 · Damian Hinds’s register of interests and votes · Sources