Civometry

MPs’ business costs

Claire Hanna

IPSA paid £1,326,247 against 1,207 published rows for Claire Hanna between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for Belfast South BC, then Belfast South and Mid Down BC. 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, 2019-20 to 2025-26

1,207 claims, £1,326,247 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.

CategoryWhat it coversClaimsPaidShare
StaffingThe salaries and employment costs of the people an MP employs to run their office and casework. IPSA pays these directly; they are not money an MP receives.16£1,026,23477.4%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.975£143,33410.8%
AccommodationThe cost of somewhere to stay for an MP whose constituency is far enough from Westminster that IPSA's rules allow it. An MP representing a London seat is not eligible on the same terms.138£36,8202.8%
TravelJourneys between the constituency and Westminster and within the constituency. Until 2018-19 IPSA published one travel category; from 2019-20 it publishes travel by the MP, by staff and by a dependant separately.78£119,8599.0%

Every year in the register

Claire Hanna’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2019-20 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.

YearClaimsStaffingOffice costsAccommodationTravelTotal
2019-2020£10,023£30£1,575£6,045£17,673
2020-21157£176,259£29,368£1,814£2,679£210,120
2021-22211£176,219£23,667£7,107£16,675£223,668
2022-23265£204,685£22,080£10,926£32,660£270,351
2023-24241£218,871£25,441£6,413£31,485£282,211
2024-25240£235,979£28,168£6,728£30,316£301,191
2025-2673£4,197£14,579£2,257—£21,033

A year in which Claire Hanna 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, 2019-20 to 2025-26

The cost types IPSA records inside each heading, largest first by what it paid.

Staffing

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Payroll6£1,013,388
Bought-in services4£10,197
Training - staff5£2,179
Mobile telephone - equipment purchase1£469

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent20£56,704
Utilities36£14,263
Business rates11£12,855
Software & applications210£7,473
Equipment - purchase77£6,402
Newspapers, journals, magazines214£5,876

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Hotel - London138£36,820

Travel

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Air travel23£99,296
Hotel - London7£13,717
Rail15£2,335
Railcard6£2,204
Other public transport12£1,003
Parking5£625

Largest claims, 2019-20 to 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.

DateCategoryCost typeDescriptionClaimedPaid
31 March 2025StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2024-25 year£232,379£232,379
31 March 2024StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2023-24 year£215,271£215,271
31 March 2023StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year£204,685£204,685
31 March 2022StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2021-22 year£175,694£175,694
31 March 2021StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2020-21 year£175,336£175,336
31 March 2023MP TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2022-23£19,637£19,637
31 March 2024MP TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2023-24£17,935£17,935
31 March 2025MP TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2024-25£17,643£17,643
31 March 2025Office CostsRentAggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2024-25£11,616£11,616
31 March 2022MP TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2021-22£10,638£10,638
31 March 2020StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2019-20 year£10,023£10,023
31 March 2025Staff TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2024-25£5,974£5,974
31 March 2024Staff TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2023-24£5,118£5,118
31 March 2023Staff TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2022-23£4,216£4,216
31 March 2020MP TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2019-20£4,177£4,177

Claims refused and money repaid, 2019-20 to 2025-26

4 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £898 repaid. A refusal is not a finding of wrongdoing — most are claims outside the scheme’s rules, or submitted without the evidence IPSA requires — and it is shown because leaving it out would show only the money that went out.

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 Claire Hanna 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 · Claire Hanna’s register of interests and votes · Sources