Methodology

Data sources

• IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) publishes MPs' business cost claims. This site imports IPSA's published data releases directly — every claim shown links to its original IPSA source record. Years covered: 2016-17 to 2025-26.
• UK Parliament Members API (members-api.parliament.uk) provides each MP's name, party, constituency, photo, and current/former status.
• Ofgem publishes the average annual household energy bill under the price cap. This site uses Ofgem's published figures as a reference point alongside MPs' own energy and utility claims.

IPSA expense categories, in plain English

IPSA groups individual, itemised claims into four categories: staffing (costs associated with employing staff, such as recruitment and training), office costs (running a constituency office — equipment, utilities, stationery and similar), accommodation (housing costs while carrying out parliamentary duties), and miscellaneous (costs that don't fit the other categories, such as removals or approved one-off costs). This site does not rename or reclassify IPSA's categories — the category and subcategory shown for each claim are exactly as published.

Travel & subsistence and other uncapped costs are published by IPSA as a single annual total per MP rather than as individual itemised claims, so they appear on this site as one figure per year rather than a breakdown of individual journeys or purchases.

Each claim also has a status as published by IPSA: Paid (the claim was reimbursed), Not Paid (the claim was submitted but rejected — the reason given by IPSA is shown alongside it), or Repaid (money was returned to IPSA, for example after a review). Figures on this site reflect the amount actually paid or repaid, not the amount originally claimed.

The Ofgem comparison

Where an MP has a claim categorised under gas, electricity, energy, or utility costs, this site shows that figure next to Ofgem's published average annual household energy bill for the same period, sourced directly from Ofgem. This is shown as a raw comparison only — no multiplier, ratio, or scored comparison is calculated. MP claims may cover more than one property or may bundle in non-energy costs depending on how IPSA has categorised them; this context is noted alongside every comparison shown.

Known limitations

• IPSA typically publishes expenses data some months after the period it covers. This site is updated automatically when new IPSA data is released, so recent claims may not yet be reflected here.
• Travel & subsistence and other uncapped costs are published by IPSA as a single annual total per MP, not itemised claims, so they cannot be broken down into individual journeys or purchases on this site.
• Party and all-MP averages are calculated only over MPs with at least one published claim in the selected period — MPs with no claims recorded for that period are not included in the denominator.
• This site covers current MPs only. Historical claims by MPs who have since left Parliament are not shown.

Polls

This site occasionally runs informal visitor polls on topics related to MP expenses and Parliament — never about a named individual MP. Polls are opinion content, not data: they are not scientific surveys, are not weighted or adjusted for representativeness, and reflect only the people who chose to visit the site and vote. One vote is allowed per visitor network per poll as a basic safeguard against repeat voting, though this is not identity verification.

Source

Read the underlying data directly at ipsa.org.uk.

Report a factual error

If you believe a figure on this site is incorrect or does not match the underlying IPSA record, let us know and we will review it.