MPs’ business costs

Gareth Davies

IPSA paid £1,170,841 against 669 published rows for Gareth Davies between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for Grantham and Stamford CC, then Grantham and Bourne 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, 2022-23

122 claims, £208,393 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	£164,005	78.7%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	95	£14,742	7.1%
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.	12	£24,700	11.9%
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	£4,946	2.4%

Every year in the register

Gareth Davies’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2019-20 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
2019-20	38	£39,166	£5,996	£6,507	£1,852	£53,521
2020-21	117	£140,167	£23,547	£17,441	£2,223	£183,378
2021-22	81	£156,082	£10,579	£26,715	£3,106	£196,482
2022-23	122	£164,005	£14,742	£24,700	£4,946	£208,393
2023-24	115	£194,600	£13,467	£35,649	£4,415	£248,130
2024-25	146	£211,358	£19,992	£38,921	£3,205	£273,475
2025-26	50	—	£4,505	£2,957	—	£7,462

A year in which Gareth Davies 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, 2022-23

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£160,917
Pooled staffing services	1	£3,088

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Stationery & printing	38	£5,788
Rent	13	£2,520
Equipment - purchase	2	£2,062
Software & applications	19	£1,051
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	13	£894
Training - staff	1	£750

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	11	£24,683
Hotel - UK Not London	1	£17

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Mileage - car	4	£2,905
Rail	5	£1,749
Air travel	1	£215
Taxi	2	£62
Parking	1	£15

Largest claims, 2022-23

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 2023	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year	£160,917	£160,917
28 April 2022	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Policy Research Unit (Conservative)	£3,088	£3,088
31 March 2023	MP Travel	Mileage - car	Aggregated figure for travel during 2022-23	£2,616	£2,616
1 December 2022	Accommodation	Rent	November accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
2 March 2023	Accommodation	Rent	London accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
2 February 2023	Accommodation	Rent	London Accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
1 October 2022	Accommodation	Rent	London accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
1 September 2022	Accommodation	Rent	London Accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
1 August 2022	Accommodation	Rent	London accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
1 July 2022	Accommodation	Rent	London accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
1 June 2022	Accommodation	Rent	London accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
1 April 2022	Accommodation	Rent	London accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
1 March 2022	Accommodation	Rent	Accommodation London	£2,244	£2,244
1 November 2022	Accommodation	Rent	London accommodation	£2,244	£2,244
30 January 2023	Office Costs	Equipment - purchase	Computer, laptop, PC, tablet & accessories	£1,985	£1,985

Claims refused and money repaid, 2022-23

1 claim carries an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £11 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 Gareth Davies 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 · Gareth Davies’s register of interests and votes · Sources