MPs’ business costs
Fred Thomas
IPSA paid £240,537 against 274 published rows for Fred Thomas between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Plymouth Moor View 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, 2025-26
90 claims, £14,932 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 | £650 | 4.4% |
| Office costs | Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage. | 60 | £10,695 | 71.6% |
| 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. | 28 | £3,587 | 24.0% |
Every year in the register
Fred Thomas’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 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 184 | £169,706 | £28,345 | £18,729 | £8,825 | £225,605 |
| 2025-26 | 90 | £650 | £10,695 | £3,587 | — | £14,932 |
A year in which Fred Thomas 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.
Staffing
| Cost type | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Training - staff | 2 | £650 |
Office costs
| Cost type | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Landline phone & internet - rental & usage | 23 | £2,338 |
| Utilities | 14 | £2,095 |
| Software & applications | 2 | £1,704 |
| Advertising and contact cards | 3 | £1,254 |
| Equipment - purchase | 6 | £768 |
| Website hosting and design | 1 | £605 |
Accommodation
| Cost type | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Council tax | 10 | £1,876 |
| Utilities | 17 | £1,464 |
| Cleaning services | 1 | £248 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 June 2025 | Office Costs | Software & applications | ELECTED TECHNOLOGIES | £1,476 | £1,476 |
| 7 August 2025 | Office Costs | Advertising and contact cards | PRINTED.COM | £806 | £806 |
| 15 August 2025 | Office Costs | Website hosting and design | Website hosting for website: August 2025 - August 2027 - www.fredforplymouth.com | £605 | £605 |
| 26 June 2025 | Staffing | Training - staff | REAL CLEAR | £450 | £450 |
| 5 February 2026 | Office Costs | Utilities | Electricity | £447 | £447 |
| 19 January 2026 | Office Costs | Training - MP | EB POLICY MISSION FEL | £447 | £447 |
| 8 March 2026 | Office Costs | Utilities | Electricity | £344 | £344 |
| 1 October 2025 | Accommodation | Council tax | Council tax - October | £300 | £300 |
| 2 March 2026 | Accommodation | Council tax | Council tax on constiutency flat | £299 | £299 |
| 1 February 2026 | Accommodation | Council tax | Council tax on constituency flat | £299 | £299 |
| 1 December 2025 | Accommodation | Council tax | Accommodation council tax - December | £299 | £299 |
| 1 November 2025 | Accommodation | Council tax | Council tax - November | £299 | £299 |
| 16 December 2025 | Office Costs | Insurance - buildings | Constituency office buildings insurance | £279 | £279 |
| 10 February 2026 | Office Costs | Business rates | HTTPS://WWW.PLYMOUTH.G | £250 | £250 |
| 25 August 2025 | Accommodation | Cleaning services | End of tenancy fees | £248 | £248 |
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 Fred Thomas 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 · Fred Thomas’s register of interests and votes · Sources