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, 2021-22

79 claims, £187,942 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.	2	£151,040	80.4%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	68	£4,016	2.1%
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.	1	£31,045	16.5%
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.	8	£1,841	1.0%

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, 2021-22

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£148,052
Pooled staffing services	1	£2,988

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Stationery & printing	27	£1,247
Mobile telephone - contract & usage	24	£823
Working From Home Allowance	1	£624
Software & applications	1	£600
Website hosting and design	1	£300
Venue hire, meetings & surgeries	8	£219

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	1	£31,045

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Mileage - car	4	£1,014
Rail	2	£810
Parking	2	£17

Largest claims, 2021-22

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 2022	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2021-22 year	£148,052	£148,052
31 March 2022	Accommodation	Rent	Aggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2021-22	£31,045	£31,045
23 April 2021	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Policy Research Unit (Conservative)	£2,988	£2,988
31 March 2022	MP Travel	Rail	Aggregated figure for travel during 2021-22	£740	£740
31 March 2022	MP Travel	Mileage - car	Aggregated figure for travel during 2021-22	£706	£706
31 March 2022	Office Costs	Working From Home Allowance	Aggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2021-22	£624	£624
25 January 2022	Office Costs	Software & applications	Caseworker software annual hosting and support fee	£600	£600
14 January 2022	Office Costs	Website hosting and design	Website costs for damianhinds.com	£300	£300
31 March 2022	MP Travel	Mileage - car	Aggregated figure for travel during 2021-22	£233	£233
27 May 2021	Office Costs	Mobile telephone - contract & usage	Mobile phone rental and usage costs for constituency staff member for April 2021. Higher than average cost for month of April reflects greater data usage during this billing period.	£182	£182
9 September 2021	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner September 2021	£105	£105
6 January 2022	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	XMA January 2022	£91	£91
6 January 2022	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	XMA January 2022	£91	£91
6 January 2022	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	XMA January 2022	£91	£91
18 October 2021	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	XMA October 2021	£91	£91

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