MPs’ business costs

Janet Daby

IPSA paid £1,583,870 against 1,067 published rows for Janet Daby between 2018-19 and 2025-26 as the member for Lewisham East 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, 2022-23

142 claims, £250,267 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.

CategoryWhat it coversClaimsPaidShare
StaffingThe 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£220,50788.1%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.140£29,70911.9%
TravelJourneys 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.1£520.0%

Every year in the register

Janet Daby’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2018-19 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.

YearClaimsStaffingOffice costsAccommodationTravelMiscellaneousTotal
2018-19164£106,991£24,270£15£131,276
2019-20142£160,335£25,404£315£20£186,075
2020-2190£206,655£30,458£24£237,136
2021-22185£206,144£28,411£234,555
2022-23142£220,507£29,709£52£250,267
2023-24175£242,194£26,727£139£603£269,663
2024-25133£242,115£26,698£19£268,832
2025-2636£6,065£6,065

A year in which Janet Daby 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 typeClaimsPaid
Payroll1£220,507

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent12£14,046
Stationery & printing31£5,258
Pooled staffing services1£4,200
Equipment - purchase19£1,474
Mobile telephone - contract & usage37£1,178
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage4£804

Travel

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Taxi1£52

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.

DateCategoryCost typeDescriptionClaimedPaid
31 March 2023StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year£220,507£220,507
18 May 2022Office CostsPooled staffing servicesParliamentary Research Service (Labour)£4,200£4,200
9 March 2023Office CostsRent£1,231£1,231
9 February 2023Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
10 January 2023Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
8 December 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
8 November 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
11 October 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
8 September 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
9 August 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
12 July 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
14 June 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
10 May 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
12 April 2022Office CostsRent£1,165£1,165
6 December 2022Office CostsStationery & printingBanner January 2023£840£840

Claims refused and money repaid, 2022-23

2 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £136 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 Janet Daby 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 · Janet Daby’s register of interests and votes · Sources