Question

To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, how many meetings the Authority had with staff representative bodies before the announcement of staffing budgets.

Whilst IPSA cannot enter into formal negotiations that would have any binding effect on the individual decisions of MPs as employers, IPSA is happy to work in any effective way that it can with staff representatives to ensure that their voice is heard, and seen to be heard.

IPSA does not set MPs’ staff pay as MPs are the individual employers of their staff as a matter of law. IPSA has, however, proactively sought meetings and discussions with staff representatives and has significantly increased engagement with MPs’ staff over recent years. This has included regular meetings with its MP Staff User Group, joining the House of Commons’ Office Manager group, and through inviting staff representatives, such as Unite, the Members and Peers’ Staff Association (MAPSA), and Wellness Working Group, to IPSA Board meetings to share their insight and views. IPSA has also liaised in recent years with the GMB trade union.

IPSA is very grateful for the high volume of valuable feedback it has received through these series of feedback channels. This has enabled IPSA to survey MP staff on casework workload, budgets, and wellbeing, and check in at each House Office Manager meeting, with such engagement valuable to IPSA in proposing a staffing uplift during the covid-19 pandemic and in establishing an exceptional funding process for the pressures created during the Afghan withdrawal in August 2021.

In addition to the channels above, direct representations from staff groups were considered as part of the proposals which IPSA made on MPs’ staffing budgets. Specific examples for 2023/24 budgets include meetings with Unite and MAPSA on 26 May, 14 June, and 21 November 2022, and with the GMB union on 16 December.