Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Warrington North, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, whether topping up statutory parental bereavement leave payment with occupational pay up to a staff member’s full pay for two weeks includes bereavement leave for pregnancy loss before 24 weeks.
Answered by Charlotte Nichols
The occupational policies funded by IPSA with regard to MPs' staff aim to align with the eligibility criteria set by the Government with respect to statutory payments, in accordance with the need for IPSA's policy to reflect the experience of other working citizens.
The eligibility criteria for statutory parental bereavement pay establishes that the payment only applies after 24 weeks gestation. IPSA is, however, monitoring the progress of the Employment Rights Bill and once enacted, will update it policies and procedures in accordance with any changes.
Within the rules of the Scheme of of MPs' Staffing and Business Costs, MPs have the discretion to provide compassionate or bereavement leave to any staff member and this is laid out on IPSA's guidance website.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Warrington North, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing staff salary pay scales so parliamentary advisors can be paid at the same level as hon. Members.
Answered by Charlotte Nichols
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) keeps MPs' staff pay under review and periodically assesses benchmarking data so that pay scales remain in line with the salaries of other similar roles within the public sector.
There are seven standard MPs' staff roles plus interns, each having different job descriptions, required skills and competencies, experience, and levels of responsibility. IPSA's benchmarking process insures that salary differentials reflect the market rates for different roles.
IPSA annually presents its recommendations to the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority as part of the committee's review of IPSA's main estimate.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Warrington North, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, what the percentage increases were for (a) MP's staffing budgets and (b) IPSA staffing expenditure between financial years 2018-19 and 2024-25.
Answered by Charlotte Nichols
IPSA's proposed budgets are scrutinised each year by the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Authority and approved by the House of Commons.
MPs' staffing budgets have increased by 63.3% between 2018-19 and 2024-25. In 2018-19, the London Staffing Budget was £164,460 and the non-London Saffing Budget was £153,620. In 2024-25, the London Staffing Budget was £268,550 and the non-London Saffing Budget was £250,820.
IPSA staffing expenditure has increased by 47.8% between 2018-19 and 2023-24 (the most recent year for which there is a full year expenditure) in response to MPs clearly expressed wish to see service standards significantly improved.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Warrington North, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, whether IPSA plans to implement efficiency savings to reduce operating costs to the levels of 2018-19.
Answered by Charlotte Nichols
IPSA has a statutory duty to support MPs in their parliamentary duties efficiently and cost effectively. As a proporation of IPSA's overall funding, operating costs have remained within 5% of its total budget.
For 2018-19, IPSA's resourcing was subsequently recognised to be inadequate. The corporate plan for 2021-24 saw the introduction of IPSA's transformation programme which included resourcing IPSA effectively to address the issues MPs and their staff were experiencing.
The feedback from MPs and their staff, and the year-on-year KPI data IPSA provides to SCIPSA, is evidence of increased efficiency and effectiveness. IPSA presents its fully-costed plans, including those relating to its own operating costs, for SCIPSA's review, challenge and approval annually.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Warrington North, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, what proportion of employee work-time was spent working from (a) home and (b) an IPSA office location in 2023-24.
Answered by Charlotte Nichols
IPSA does not record data on the proportion of employee work-time spent working from home versus the office. IPSA changed its policy in 2020 to recruit nationwide to ensure its employees have a local understanding of the constituencies MPs serve. It operates a flexible hybrid working policy where staff will work from home, IPSA's office, or the House, attending engagements that need a physical presence.
We measure performance based on outcomes and delivery rather than presence in the office. IPSA's performance has improved significantly since 2020, as recognised by SCIPSA.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, what assessment the Committee has made of the effectiveness of the handling of MPs expenses claims by IPSA.
Answered by Charles Walker
The Speaker’s Committee meets IPSA throughout the year to assess its performance, running costs and effectiveness in handling MPs’ expenses. The Committee last met IPSA on 5 March 2024 and a transcript of that session is available on the Committee’s website: https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/14403/pdf/
In 2023, 65.3 per cent of MPs and their staff rated IPSA’s service as either good or very good, which was up on this measure in 2019 when 25.1 per cent rated the service in that way. The time taken for IPSA to reimburse MPs’ claims has reduced from an average of 8 days in 2020-21 to 2.6 days in 2023-24. Compliance with IPSA’s scheme is currently at 99.9%.
Through its scrutiny of IPSA, the Committee is looking at the steps being taken by IPSA to help improve its effectiveness in enabling MPs and their staff to claim for expenses and business costs. IPSA’s ongoing work includes:
The Committee plans to consider IPSA’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2023-24 later in the summer at which point it will assess IPSA’s latest results against its performance indicators.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, how many staff are employed by IPSA; and how many and what proportion of those staff were working in the office at least (a) two and (b) three days a week in the last 12 months.
Answered by Charles Walker
As of today, IPSA has 101 employees. IPSA is unable to provide data on how many staff were working in the office at least (a) two and (b) three days a week in the last twelve months, as this information is not recorded.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what the (a) total and (b) per Member cost of the House of (i) Lords and (ii) Commons was in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
This information is not held centrally.
The basic annual salary for an MP from 1st April 2023 is £86,584. MPs also receive expenses to cover the costs of running an office, employing staff, having somewhere to live in London or their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) which was created in 2009 by the Parliamentary Standards Act, is responsible for setting and regulating MPs’ salaries, pensions, business costs and expenses. IPSA is quite rightly independent of Parliament and the Government. At the end of each financial year, IPSA publishes an annual report and accounts which can be found on IPSA’s website (https://www.theipsa.org.uk/annual-reports).
Most members of the House of Lords do not receive a salary for their parliamentary duties but are eligible to receive allowances and, within certain limits, the travel expenses they incur in fulfilling their parliamentary duties. The House of Lords publishes quarterly data on the claims made by Peers which can be found on the Parliament website (https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/whos-in-the-house-of-lords/house-of-lords-expenses/)
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, by what proportion the staffing budget for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has changed in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Charles Walker
In the past ten years, the IPSA staffing budget has been increased in each financial yearc, including a mid-year uplift to budget in 2020-21 in response to the coronavirus pandemic:
Financial year | Budget envelope (non-London) | Budget envelope (London) |
2013-14 | £137,200 | £144,000 |
2014-15 | £138,600 (1% increase) | £145,500 (1% increase from the previous year) |
2015-16 | £140,000 (1% increase) | £147,000 (1% increase) |
2016-17 | £141,400 (1% increase) | £148,500 (1% increase) |
2017-18 | £150,900 (6.7% increase) | £161,550 (8.8% increase) |
2018-19 | £153,620 (1.8% increase) | £164,460 (1.8% increase) |
2019-20 | £155,930 (1.5% increase) | £166,930 (1.5% increase) |
2020-21 | £177,550 plus mid-year £16,480 covid uplift (£194,030 or 24.4% if including covid increase) | £188,860 plus mid-year £18,270 covid uplift (£207,130 or 24.1% if including covid increase) |
2021-22 | £179,330 plus £24,970 covid uplift (£204,300 or 5.3% if including covid increase) | £190,750 plus £27,680 covid uplift (£218,430 or 5.5% if including covid increase) |
2022-23 | £221,750 (8.5% if incorporating covid uplift for 2021-22) | £237,430 (8.7% if incorporating covid uplift for 2021-22) |
2023-24 | £236,170 (6.5% increase) | £252,870 (6.5% increase) |
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
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.
Answered by Charles Walker
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.