MPs’ business costs

Victoria Atkins

IPSA paid £1,711,479 against 600 published rows for Victoria Atkins between 2015-16 and 2025-26 as the member for Louth and Horncastle 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, 2016-17

76 claims, £155,030 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	£129,154	83.3%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	52	£7,452	4.8%
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.	13	£12,223	7.9%
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.	1	£4,324	2.8%
Starting up and winding up	The one-off costs of opening an office on election and of closing one on leaving. These fall in the years around a general election and are absent from the rest.	8	£1,876	1.2%

Every year in the register

Victoria Atkins’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	54	£79,700	£9,138	£8,217	£3,189	£1,776	£102,020
2016-17	76	£129,154	£7,452	£12,223	£4,324	£1,876	£155,030
2017-18	49	£137,905	£5,195	£12,414	£3,619	—	£159,133
2018-19	36	£143,311	£4,361	£16,349	£4,017	—	£168,039
2019-20	33	£135,656	£1,553	£13,750	£3,448	—	£154,407
2020-21	40	£146,215	£6,026	£13,750	£92	—	£166,083
2021-22	66	£147,074	£8,788	£15,000	£848	—	£171,710
2022-23	90	£138,938	£14,551	£13,750	£2,830	—	£170,069
2023-24	75	£184,457	£8,067	£17,150	£2,355	—	£212,029
2024-25	54	£209,178	£8,041	£20,462	£3,120	—	£240,801
2025-26	27	—	£10,511	£1,649	—	—	£12,160

A year in which Victoria Atkins 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, 2016-17

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£126,493
Pooled Services: Direct	1	£2,661

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Stationery Purchase	24	£3,710
Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental	13	£1,348
Computer SW Purchase	1	£900
Const Office Gas	4	£355
Contact Cards	2	£294
Contents Insurance	1	£281

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Accommodation Rent	12	£11,244
Council Tax	1	£979

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Aggregated Travel Costs	1	£4,324

Starting up and winding up

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Office Furn Purch StartUp	3	£1,442
Other Equipment Purch StartUp	2	£325
Office Consumables StartUp	2	£93
Shredder Purch Startup	1	£16

Largest claims, 2016-17

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 2017	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2016-17 year	£126,493	£126,493
31 March 2017	Travel	Aggregated Travel Costs	Aggregated figure for travel during 2016-17	£4,324	£4,324
21 April 2016	Staffing	Pooled Services: Direct	PRU	£2,661	£2,661
4 May 2016	Accommodation	Council Tax	May Payment Card	£979	£979
25 January 2017	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
20 December 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
25 November 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
26 October 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
27 September 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
24 August 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
29 July 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
29 June 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
24 May 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
27 April 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950
1 April 2016	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£950	£950

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 Victoria Atkins 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 · Victoria Atkins’s register of interests and votes · Sources