MP staffing budget explained
Staff salaries and related costs are usually the largest part of an MP's IPSA claims. This guide explains what staffing covers and how it appears in published data.
What staffing claims include
IPSA's staffing category covers costs associated with employing staff — salaries, National Insurance, pension contributions, training and related expenses as published.
Many MPs employ caseworkers, office managers and researchers. The published subcategories follow IPSA's labels exactly on this site.
Reading the data
On each MP profile, the category chart shows how much went to staffing in a given period. The itemised table lists individual lines with links to IPSA source records.
Common questions
- What is the MP staffing budget?
- IPSA sets budgets and rules for employing staff to support parliamentary and constituency work. Published claims show what was actually claimed, not a single fixed allowance for every MP.
- Why do staffing costs vary?
- Team size, salaries, recruitment and casework load differ by office. Constituency caseload and whether an MP holds ministerial office can affect staffing needs.
- Does this site rank MPs by staffing spend?
- No. We show published IPSA totals and itemised claims without labelling higher spend as wasteful or lower spend as better.
Next steps
- How much do MPs spend? — Party and network averages
- Staffing claims — Browse staffing lines network-wide
- Search MPs — Open any MP profile