MPs’ business costs

Nick Thomas-Symonds

IPSA paid £2,152,624 against 1,231 published rows for Nick Thomas-Symonds between 2015-16 and 2025-26 as the member for Torfaen 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

124 claims, £184,875 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	£131,607	71.2%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	95	£19,719	10.7%
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.	20	£25,055	13.6%
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	£8,495	4.6%

Every year in the register

Nick Thomas-Symonds’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2015-16 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	Starting up and winding up	Total
2015-16	113	£121,476	£17,409	£21,894	£5,428	£5,517	£171,724
2016-17	116	£142,237	£15,979	£26,188	£6,329	—	£190,733
2017-18	142	£147,520	£22,762	£27,652	£3,742	—	£201,676
2018-19	129	£149,381	£21,065	£25,368	£6,163	—	£201,977
2019-20	124	£131,607	£19,719	£25,055	£8,495	—	£184,875
2020-21	94	£134,879	£16,997	£28,939	£5,526	—	£186,341
2021-22	109	£138,643	£16,785	£31,633	£9,688	—	£196,749
2022-23	106	£192,270	£21,313	£31,741	£10,832	—	£256,156
2023-24	142	£224,246	£22,347	£33,012	£11,384	—	£290,990
2024-25	103	£199,045	£22,571	£34,465	£3,560	—	£259,641
2025-26	53	—	£10,097	£1,666	—	—	£11,763

A year in which Nick Thomas-Symonds 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	£131,607

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	1	£3,750
Pooled staffing services	1	£3,600
Stationery & printing	33	£3,275
Website hosting and design	1	£1,980
Maintenance, Redecorations & Repairs	3	£1,694
Cleaning services	23	£1,586

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	12	£24,486
Utilities	8	£569

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rail	4	£6,743
Parking	1	£1,069
Mileage - car	1	£462
Hotel - European	1	£175
Congestion charge & toll	1	£46

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	£131,607	£131,607
31 March 2020	MP Travel	Rail	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£5,314	£5,314
26 April 2019	Office Costs	Rent	ADVANCE PAYMENT REQUEST Constituency Office Rent - Annual	£3,750	£3,750
3 June 2019	Office Costs	Pooled staffing services	Parliamentary Research Service (Labour)	£3,600	£3,600
25 March 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,492	£2,492
29 January 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,167	£2,167
26 December 2019	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,167	£2,167
29 November 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,167	£2,167
24 October 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,167	£2,167
25 September 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,167	£2,167
23 August 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,167	£2,167
25 July 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,167	£2,167
26 June 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,167	£2,167
24 May 2019	Accommodation	Rent	Direct rental payment	£2,167	£2,167
26 April 2019	Office Costs	Website hosting and design	ADVANCE PAYMENT REQUEST Website hosting - Annual - http://www.nickthomassymonds.uk/	£1,980	£1,980

Claims refused and money repaid, 2019-20

2 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £780 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 Nick Thomas-Symonds 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 · Nick Thomas-Symonds’s register of interests and votes · Sources