MPs’ business costs

Mr Will Forster

IPSA paid £165,248 against 185 published rows for Mr Will Forster between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Woking 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

70 claims, £11,965 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.60£9,22177.1%
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.10£2,74422.9%

Every year in the register

Mr Will Forster’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2024-25 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 costsAccommodationTravelTotal
2024-25115£118,549£26,136£368£8,229£153,282
2025-2670£9,221£2,744£11,965

A year in which Mr Will Forster 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
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage23£2,753
Software & applications2£2,176
Utilities10£1,466
Cleaning services11£1,344
Venue hire, meetings & surgeries8£686
TV licence2£321

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Hotel - London7£2,346
Hotel - UK Not London3£398

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
15 August 2025Office CostsSoftware & applicationsELECTED TECHNOLOGIES£1,476£1,476
9 October 2024Office CostsSoftware & applicationsELECTED TECHNOLOGIES [200011793-35]£700£700
2 July 2025AccommodationHotel - LondonHotel in Westminster£450£450
23 June 2025AccommodationHotel - LondonMP Stay in Westminster£440£440
2 December 2025AccommodationHotel - UK Not London[***][***][***]£398£398
14 July 2025AccommodationHotel - London[***][***][***]£398£398
12 May 2025AccommodationHotel - London[***][***][***]£398£398
5 April 2025AccommodationHotel - UK Not London[***] [***]£301£301
1 September 2025Office CostsUtilitiesElectricity£270£270
9 December 2025AccommodationHotel - London[***][***][***]£220£220
27 November 2025AccommodationHotel - London[***][***][***]£220£220
6 November 2025AccommodationHotel - London[***][***][***]£220£220
1 August 2025Office CostsInsurance - buildingsConstituency Office Insurance£198£198
23 January 2026Office CostsTV licenceTVLICENSING.CO.UK£175£175
14 May 2025Office CostsStationery & printingBanner June 2025£158£158

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 Will Forster 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 Will Forster’s register of interests and votes · Sources