MPs’ business costs

Clive Efford

IPSA paid £2,805,662 against 1,030 published rows for Clive Efford between 2010-11 and 2025-26 as the member for Eltham BC, then Eltham and Chislehurst 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, 2020-21

41 claims, £197,643 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
Staffing	The 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.	3	£178,467	90.3%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	36	£17,496	8.9%
Travel	Journeys 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.	2	£1,680	0.9%

Every year in the register

Clive Efford’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2010-11 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	Travel	Miscellaneous	Total
2010-11	58	£82,610	£13,552	£260	—	£96,422
2011-12	73	£132,029	£19,731	£442	£580	£152,781
2012-13	63	£137,528	£24,724	£1,009	£706	£163,966
2013-14	92	£147,090	£24,162	£710	—	£171,962
2014-15	80	£145,323	£22,164	£737	—	£168,225
2015-16	80	£145,882	£22,585	£360	—	£168,827
2016-17	74	£154,608	£19,939	£360	—	£174,907
2017-18	82	£158,301	£24,155	£160	—	£182,616
2018-19	65	£162,219	£21,455	£721	—	£184,395
2019-20	67	£133,521	£18,160	£384	—	£152,066
2020-21	41	£178,467	£17,496	£1,680	—	£197,643
2021-22	29	£206,212	£21,730	£264	—	£228,206
2022-23	85	£216,318	£23,322	£957	—	£240,597
2023-24	60	£223,526	£23,747	£520	£912	£248,705
2024-25	55	£241,434	£25,190	£685	—	£267,308
2025-26	26	—	£7,037	—	—	£7,037

A year in which Clive Efford 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, 2020-21

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£173,990
Pooled staffing services	1	£3,600
Training - staff	1	£877

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	12	£11,715
Equipment - purchase	4	£2,511
Working From Home Allowance	1	£1,247
Stationery & printing	3	£519
Newspapers, journals, magazines	2	£507
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	4	£443

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Congestion charge & toll	1	£1,023
Mileage - car	1	£657

Largest claims, 2020-21

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
31 March 2021	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2020-21 year	£173,990	£173,990
28 January 2021	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Parliamentary Research Service (Labour)	£3,600	£3,600
31 March 2021	Office Costs	Working From Home Allowance	Aggregated figure for 2020-21	£1,247	£1,247
2 March 2021	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
2 February 2021	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
6 January 2021	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
1 December 2020	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
1 November 2020	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
4 October 2020	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
1 September 2020	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
1 August 2020	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
1 July 2020	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
3 June 2020	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
6 May 2020	Office Costs	Rent	—	£1,065	£1,065
31 March 2021	MP Travel	Congestion charge & toll	Aggregated figure for travel during 2020-21	£1,023	£1,023

Claims refused and money repaid, 2020-21

1 claim carries an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £2,032 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 Clive Efford 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 · Clive Efford’s register of interests and votes · Sources