MPs’ business costs

Mr Toby Perkins

IPSA paid £3,033,164 against 2,424 published rows for Mr Toby Perkins between 2010-11 and 2025-26 as the member for Chesterfield 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

68 claims, £19,720 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.

CategoryWhat it coversClaimsPaidShare
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.63£16,68984.6%
AccommodationThe 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£3,03115.4%

Every year in the register

Mr Toby Perkins’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2010-11 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
2010-1199£75,754£16,243£18,592£5,149£115,737
2011-1297£109,201£15,591£17,012£8,795£267£150,865
2012-13154£125,960£15,341£19,962£10,062£171,325
2013-14203£123,607£18,546£21,374£9,621£173,149
2014-15158£136,985£19,023£20,752£10,447£187,206
2015-16139£131,083£14,809£22,974£12,266£181,131
2016-17134£122,444£12,465£24,478£11,766£171,153
2017-18150£142,258£16,985£24,613£10,578£194,433
2018-19149£148,393£17,188£24,333£13,689£203,603
2019-20188£155,900£20,527£17,831£12,426£206,683
2020-21156£165,874£20,302£23,046£6,239£215,460
2021-22194£175,579£25,631£17,674£15,362£234,247
2022-23209£185,238£26,676£15,805£11,108£238,828
2023-24173£200,133£23,486£25,290£14,137£263,046
2024-25153£229,541£27,869£31,140£18,028£306,578
2025-2668£16,689£3,031£19,720

A year in which Mr Toby Perkins 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.

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Utilities13£4,420
Stationery & printing7£3,519
Maintenance, Redecorations & Repairs9£2,261
Software & applications3£1,860
Cleaning services4£1,182
Mobile telephone - contract & usage10£1,123

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Council tax1£2,717
Utilities4£314

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.

DateCategoryCost typeDescriptionClaimedPaid
12 May 2025AccommodationCouncil taxCouncil Tax - London flat£2,717£2,717
12 February 2026Office CostsMaintenance, Redecorations & RepairsRepairs to constituency office building£1,296£1,296
4 April 2025Office CostsStationery & printingConstituency office printer ink£980£980
15 July 2025Office CostsStationery & printingBanner August 2025£802£802
20 May 2025Office CostsUtilitiesElectricity£801£801
23 April 2025Office CostsStationery & printingPrinter ink for London office£790£790
2 December 2025Office CostsSoftware & applicationsUpgrade to MP casework database£738£738
16 October 2025Office CostsSoftware & applicationsAnnual fee for MP casework database£738£738
17 March 2026Office CostsStationery & printingBanner March 2026£686£686
24 November 2025Office CostsUtilitiesElectricity£637£637
12 May 2025Office CostsUtilitiesGas£550£550
19 February 2026Office CostsUtilitiesElectricity£517£517
19 February 2026Office CostsUtilitiesGas£399£399
24 April 2025Office CostsUtilitiesElectricity£391£391
5 August 2025Office CostsSoftware & applicationsSURVEYMONKEYCORE£384£384

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 Mr Toby Perkins 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 · Mr Toby Perkins’s register of interests and votes · Sources