MPs’ business costs
Catherine Fookes
IPSA paid £236,046 against 273 published rows for Catherine Fookes between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Monmouthshire CC. These are the costs of running an office and employing staff under IPSA’s rules. They are not salary, and the largest part of them is wages IPSA pays to the member’s employees rather than money the member receives.
By category, 2025-26
74 claims, £23,272 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.
| Category | What it covers | Claims | Paid | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office costs | Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage. | 66 | £22,469 | 96.6% |
| Miscellaneous | Claims IPSA records under none of the headings above. Called “Miscellaneous Expenses” until 2018-19. | 8 | £802 | 3.4% |
Every year in the register
Catherine Fookes’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2024-25 and the last is 2025-26. Figures are not adjusted for inflation, so a rise between two distant years is partly a rise in prices. Select a year to read it on its own.
| Year | Claims | Staffing | Office costs | Accommodation | Travel | Miscellaneous | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 199 | £155,457 | £26,459 | £18,043 | £12,467 | £348 | £212,774 |
| 2025-26 | 74 | — | £22,469 | — | — | £802 | £23,272 |
A year in which Catherine Fookes joined or left the House part-way through is a part year, and is not comparable with a full one.
What each category is made of, 2025-26
The cost types IPSA records inside each heading, largest first by what it paid.
Office costs
| Cost type | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Stationery & printing | 28 | £8,007 |
| Advertising and contact cards | 9 | £7,814 |
| Landline phone & internet - rental & usage | 11 | £2,060 |
| Postage & couriers | 4 | £1,605 |
| Software & applications | 2 | £1,576 |
| Venue hire, meetings & surgeries | 6 | £618 |
Miscellaneous
| Cost type | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Translation services (Welsh Language) | 8 | £802 |
Largest claims, 2025-26
The 15 rows IPSA paid most against, with IPSA’s own description of each. Read the description before the amount: IPSA publishes most of a member’s staffing as one row for the whole year — “Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the ⟨year⟩ year” — so the largest row here is usually a year of wages for the member’s employees and not something bought.
| Date | Category | Cost type | Description | Claimed | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 February 2026 | Office Costs | Advertising and contact cards | Constituency wide leaflet delivery | £3,959 | £3,959 |
| 23 February 2026 | Office Costs | Advertising and contact cards | constituency leaflet print | £2,598 | £2,598 |
| 19 September 2025 | Office Costs | Landline phone & internet - rental & usage | Not Applicable | £1,504 | £1,504 |
| 3 July 2025 | Office Costs | Software & applications | Elected Technologies renewal | £1,476 | £1,476 |
| 27 February 2026 | Office Costs | Stationery & printing | Printer Ink | £1,352 | £1,352 |
| 3 December 2025 | Office Costs | Stationery & printing | CARTRIDGE WORLD | £781 | £781 |
| 5 March 2026 | Office Costs | Stationery & printing | Banner March 2026 | £620 | £620 |
| 19 February 2026 | Office Costs | Postage & couriers | Royal mail 2nd class stamps | £590 | £590 |
| 23 February 2026 | Office Costs | Postage & couriers | royal mail 2nd class postage stamps | £472 | £472 |
| 12 March 2026 | Office Costs | Advertising and contact cards | leaflet distribution | £450 | £450 |
| 17 February 2026 | Office Costs | Stationery & printing | printer ink | £357 | £357 |
| 27 January 2026 | Office Costs | Stationery & printing | Printer Ink | £357 | £357 |
| 27 February 2026 | Office Costs | Postage & couriers | Office supplies | £354 | £354 |
| 5 March 2026 | Office Costs | Stationery & printing | Banner March 2026 | £299 | £299 |
| 5 March 2026 | Office Costs | Stationery & printing | Banner March 2026 | £299 | £299 |
What this page does not show
Whether any of it was justified. IPSA accepted these claims under its own rules and the register records what was paid, not whether it should have been. A large total is not a finding about the member.
Nor how Catherine Fookes compares with another member. After staffing the largest headings are accommodation and travel, and both are decided mostly by where a constituency is: a member several hundred miles from Westminster is eligible for costs a member with a London seat is not. Two members’ totals are two sets of rules as much as two sets of choices, and the length of service differs too.
It is also not pay. IPSA sets and publishes MPs’ salaries separately and they are not in this register; the staffing figure here is the salaries of the member’s employees.
All MPs’ business costs · Catherine Fookes’s register of interests and votes · Sources