Who publishes UK MP expenses?

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is the official source. IPSA regulates the scheme and publishes individual business-cost data, annual totals and other financial data.

How often are MP expenses published?

IPSA says it publishes individual staffing and business costs every two months. Those releases usually cover claims processed four to five months earlier, so the newest financial year is not a live total.

Does an MP expense total include salary?

No. Salary and parliamentary business costs are different. IPSA is responsible for MPs' pay, but salary data is published separately from expense and business-cost claims.

What do paid, repaid and not paid mean?

Paid means IPSA approved the submitted cost as a parliamentary expense. Repaid means money originally paid was later returned. Not paid means the submitted cost was considered outside the scheme and was not reimbursed.

Why can an annual total differ from the visible individual claims?

IPSA explains that some costs count in annual totals but cannot be published individually for security or data-protection reasons. Accruals and prepayments around year-end can also place individual entries in a different financial year.

Can high expenses prove that an MP did something wrong?

No. A raw total is not evidence of wrongdoing. Staffing, constituency distance, office arrangements, travel and eligibility differ. Check the financial year, category breakdown, status and source records before interpreting a figure.

Can I search old MP expenses?

IPSA publishes historical files from 2010-11 onwards. This site's coverage is narrower and is centred on MPs in the current Parliament, so use IPSA's annual downloads when you need the complete official historic record.

What are MP expenses?

MP expenses are the staffing and business costs funded through IPSA so a Member of Parliament can run an office, employ staff, travel for parliamentary work and, when eligible, meet accommodation costs. They are not the MP's personal salary.

Published 6 July 2026Reviewed against IPSA guidance 25 August 2026Site data last checked 7 Sept 2026

What MPs can claim for

IPSA's scheme pays costs necessary for MPs to perform parliamentary duties in their constituency or at Westminster. It gives MPs budgets for defined purposes and requires them to manage those budgets and have regard to value for money. There is no single personal “expenses allowance” handed to every MP to spend as they wish.

Area	What it can cover	How to read it
Staffing	Salaries and employment costs for staff supporting parliamentary and constituency work.	Payroll costs may appear as an annual aggregate after the year closes; bought-in services can appear as individual claims.
Office costs	Costs of operating parliamentary or constituency offices, including eligible premises, equipment and routine supplies.	Some direct-supplier entries use the supplier name in the published details rather than a plain description of the item.
Travel and subsistence	Eligible travel connected with parliamentary duties and associated costs allowed by the scheme.	Not every journey is published in itemised detail; some travel information is withheld for security.
Accommodation	Eligible accommodation needed because parliamentary work is split between Westminster and a constituency.	Eligibility and circumstances differ, so comparing raw accommodation totals without context is misleading.
Other and one-off costs	Other costs permitted by the scheme, including categories that can change name between financial years.	This site preserves the category and subcategory labels IPSA published instead of merging unlike historic labels.

The table is a reading guide, not a substitute for the rules. Check the current IPSA guide to staffing and business costs for the official explanation and scheme link.

Expenses are not salary or outside earnings

Three datasets are often mixed together in public discussion. An MP's basic salary is pay for holding office. IPSA business costs fund the work of the office. Outside jobs, donations, gifts, property and other registrable interests belong to Parliament's Register of Members' Financial Interests.

A salary figure should therefore never be added to an expenses total and described as “expenses”. Outside earnings should not be treated as reimbursements from IPSA either. The UK Parliament pay and business-cost page explains the division, while this site keeps outside interests in a separate section on each MP profile.

MP salaryPay for holding office IPSA expensesStaffing and business costs Outside interestsParliament's separate register

How IPSA publishes the data

IPSA publishes several related datasets rather than one final, live ledger. Individual business-cost data contains publishable claims for a financial year and is updated every two months. IPSA says those cycles usually cover claims processed four to five months before publication. That lag is why a total for the current financial year should not be compared with a completed earlier year as though both were final.

Annual total-spend files show how much each MP spent against relevant budgets after the financial year. Separate annual financial files cover salary, staffing and loans. The two newest individual-cost spreadsheets may still change as further claims are processed. The IPSA annual data page remains the primary source for complete downloads.

Choose one financial year. UK expense data is organised April to March, not by calendar year.
Check whether the year is complete. Recent figures may rise after another publication cycle.
Open the category breakdown. Staffing commonly dominates because it funds the team, not the MP personally.
Read the claim status. Submitted, paid, repaid and not paid do not mean the same thing.
Follow the source. Use IPSA's publication when a claim needs verification.

Paid, repaid and not paid

A claim appearing in a publication does not always mean the same thing happened to the money. IPSA uses three statuses, and collapsing them into a single “claimed” number can create a false impression.

Paid: Submitted and approved by IPSA as a parliamentary expense.
Repaid: Originally paid, then some or all of the money was returned to IPSA.
Not paid: Submitted but considered outside the scheme, so it was not reimbursed.

Negative entries can also represent refunds from a supplier, a payment-card refund or money returned in connection with a regular payment. The description, status and source need to be read together.

Why annual totals and visible claims can differ

Adding every visible line does not always reproduce IPSA's annual total-spend figure. IPSA identifies two important reasons. Some security or disability-assistance costs count against a budget but cannot be published as individual claims. Accruals and prepayments around the end of a financial year can also cause an individual entry to appear in a different year from the annual budget total.

Some payroll, travel and other costs are published only as an annual aggregate, dated at the end of the financial year. A line dated 31 March may therefore represent a full-year total rather than a purchase made that day. This site includes those source records but does not invent item-level detail that IPSA did not publish.

How to compare MPs without misreading the figures

A higher total is not automatically worse and a lower total is not automatically better. An MP representing a constituency far from Westminster can have different travel and accommodation needs from a London MP. Offices also differ in staffing, casework and premises. Party totals are affected by how many MPs the party has.

A defensible comparison uses the same financial year, checks whether both periods are complete, separates salary from business costs and examines categories before reaching a conclusion. A sortable table is useful for finding records; it is not a score of value, conduct or parliamentary performance.

Compare like with like: one financial year and the same data release.
Check the number and type of records, not only the total.
Preserve IPSA's original category labels across historic years.
Do not infer wrongdoing from a large amount without evidence.
Use the original source when reporting or sharing a specific claim.

What this site covers—and what it does not

MP Expenses imports IPSA data and current membership details from the UK Parliament Members API. It makes the records searchable by MP, constituency, party, financial year, category and subcategory. Every MP profile now includes a visible year-by-year table as well as the selected year's category breakdown and claim rows.

The live database currently contains financial years 2010-11 to 2025-26. Coverage is centred on members in the current Parliament, so historic data for former MPs is not necessarily represented as a complete standalone profile. IPSA's downloads should be used for the complete official archive from 2010-11 onwards.

The site does not decide whether a claim was good value, lawful or politically justified. It does not merge historic categories into invented modern groupings, estimate redacted details or treat an expenses table as a performance ranking. Read the full methodology and limitations.

Find the figures you need

Search an MPOpen year totals, categories and source-linked claims.
Browse totalsUse one financial year across current MPs.
Browse constituenciesFind a seat and its current MP.
See annual totalsUnderstand network and party figures by year.
Search claimsFilter published records by category and period.
What is IPSA?Read about the regulator behind the data.

Common questions

What are MP expenses?: MP expenses are the staffing and business costs funded under IPSA's scheme so MPs can carry out parliamentary work. They can include staff, office, travel and eligible accommodation costs. They are separate from an MP's salary.
Who publishes UK MP expenses?: The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is the official source. IPSA regulates the scheme and publishes individual business-cost data, annual totals and other financial data.
How often are MP expenses published?: IPSA says it publishes individual staffing and business costs every two months. Those releases usually cover claims processed four to five months earlier, so the newest financial year is not a live total.
Does an MP expense total include salary?: No. Salary and parliamentary business costs are different. IPSA is responsible for MPs' pay, but salary data is published separately from expense and business-cost claims.
What do paid, repaid and not paid mean?: Paid means IPSA approved the submitted cost as a parliamentary expense. Repaid means money originally paid was later returned. Not paid means the submitted cost was considered outside the scheme and was not reimbursed.
Why can an annual total differ from the visible individual claims?: IPSA explains that some costs count in annual totals but cannot be published individually for security or data-protection reasons. Accruals and prepayments around year-end can also place individual entries in a different financial year.
Can high expenses prove that an MP did something wrong?: No. A raw total is not evidence of wrongdoing. Staffing, constituency distance, office arrangements, travel and eligibility differ. Check the financial year, category breakdown, status and source records before interpreting a figure.
Can I search old MP expenses?: IPSA publishes historical files from 2010-11 onwards. This site's coverage is narrower and is centred on MPs in the current Parliament, so use IPSA's annual downloads when you need the complete official historic record.

Official sources and review note

Reviewed 25 August 2026 using the IPSA guide to MPs' staffing and business costs, IPSA annual budgets, costs and claims, IPSA publication policy and UK Parliament's pay and business-cost overview. Rules, data coverage and publication timing can change; recheck the primary sources when using a figure in current reporting.