MPs’ business costs

Paul Holmes

IPSA paid £1,108,551 against 560 published rows for Paul Holmes between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for Eastleigh BC, then Hamble Valley 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

38 claims, £46,420 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	£40,587	87.4%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	28	£1,409	3.0%
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.	5	£3,426	7.4%
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.	3	£999	2.2%

Every year in the register

Paul Holmes’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	Miscellaneous	Total
2019-20	38	£40,587	£1,409	£3,426	£999	—	£46,420
2020-21	91	£165,326	£28,171	£10,564	£3,318	—	£207,378
2021-22	80	£160,827	£25,740	£15,771	£2,612	—	£204,949
2022-23	97	£162,715	£22,048	£15,402	£4,407	—	£204,572
2023-24	93	£148,841	£24,390	£17,363	£3,768	—	£194,362
2024-25	96	£189,254	£27,080	£16,525	£3,591	—	£236,450
2025-26	65	—	£10,713	£3,707	—	—	£14,420

A year in which Paul Holmes 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	£39,702
Pooled staffing services	1	£885

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Stationery & printing	28	£1,409

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	4	£3,204
Council tax	1	£222

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Mileage - car	2	£688
Rail	1	£311

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	£39,702	£39,702
6 March 2020	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Policy Research Unit (Conservative)	£885	£885
1 April 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£850	£850
9 March 2020	Accommodation	Rent	[***]	£850	£850
4 March 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£850	£850
31 March 2020	MP Travel	Mileage - car	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£657	£657
31 January 2020	Accommodation	Rent	BEALS MORTGAGE AND FIN	£654	£654
11 March 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner February 2020	£424	£424
19 February 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	LANGFORD PRINTERS LTD	£412	£412
11 March 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner February 2020	£327	£327
31 March 2020	MP Travel	Rail	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£311	£311
19 February 2020	Accommodation	Council tax	EASTLEIGH BC	£222	£222
12 February 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner January 2020	£57	£57
31 March 2020	Staff Travel	Mileage - car	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£31	£31
12 February 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner January 2020	£29	£29

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 Paul Holmes 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 · Paul Holmes’s register of interests and votes · Sources