MPs’ business costs

Damian Hinds

IPSA paid £2,122,778 against 1,480 published rows for Damian Hinds between 2010-11 and 2025-26 as the member for East Hampshire 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, 2014-15

83 claims, £88,563 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	£72,798	82.2%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	34	£2,509	2.8%
Accommodation	The 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.	45	£9,845	11.1%
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.	1	£3,411	3.9%

Every year in the register

Damian Hinds’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	Accommodation	Travel	Total
2010-11	66	£59,155	£1,766	£11,755	£1,201	£73,877
2011-12	113	£88,237	£3,505	£10,758	£1,966	£104,466
2012-13	115	£79,229	£3,756	£6,198	£3,140	£92,322
2013-14	106	£78,935	£3,911	£5,268	£4,769	£92,882
2014-15	83	£72,798	£2,509	£9,845	£3,411	£88,563
2015-16	101	£86,220	£4,251	£10,483	£3,705	£104,659
2016-17	75	£100,689	£3,132	£9,640	£3,893	£117,353
2017-18	85	£103,345	£4,282	£12,176	£2,992	£122,796
2018-19	59	£115,933	£4,318	£24,938	£3,390	£148,579
2019-20	91	£115,726	£7,904	£26,600	£3,265	£153,495
2020-21	112	£149,534	£7,287	£31,200	£1,577	£189,598
2021-22	79	£151,040	£4,016	£31,045	£1,841	£187,942
2022-23	74	£157,002	£3,378	£34,836	£2,571	£197,786
2023-24	158	£181,506	£4,967	£35,105	£3,589	£225,166
2024-25	132	£177,198	£4,980	£33,323	£4,286	£219,786
2025-26	31	—	£3,508	—	—	£3,508

A year in which Damian Hinds 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, 2014-15

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£69,178
Pooled Services: Direct	2	£3,620

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Stationery Purchase	19	£1,300
Legal Exp/Emp Practice Insur.	1	£578
Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	7	£442
Newspapers/Journals	5	£134
Other	2	£55

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Hotel London Area	45	£9,845

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Aggregated Travel Costs	1	£3,411

Largest claims, 2014-15

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 2015	Staffing	Payroll	Total payroll costs for the 2014-15 year	£69,178	£69,178
31 March 2015	Travel	Aggregated Travel Costs	Aggregated figure for travel during 2014-15	£3,411	£3,411
8 April 2014	Staffing	Pooled Services: Direct	PRU subscription	£2,620	£2,620
8 April 2014	Staffing	Pooled Services: Direct	Cross reference fee	£1,000	£1,000
9 August 2014	Office Costs	Legal Exp/Emp Practice Insur.	EPL insurance	£578	£578
27 September 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Oct 2014 IPSA Visa Card 041214	£536	£536
3 November 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Nov 2014 IPSA Visa Card 081214	£528	£528
24 October 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Nov 2014 IPSA Visa Card 081214	£518	£518
8 September 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Sep 2014 IPSA Visa Card 041214	£510	£510
28 November 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Dec 2014 IPSA Visa Card 230115	£458	£458
8 October 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Oct 2014 IPSA Visa Card 041214	£348	£348
2 December 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Dec 2014 IPSA Visa Card 230115	£342	£342
11 February 2015	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Feb 2015 IPSA Visa Card 170315	£309	£309
30 December 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Jan 2015 IPSA Visa Card [***]	£296	£296
8 October 2014	Accommodation	Hotel London Area	Oct 2014 IPSA Visa Card 041214	£289	£289

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 Damian Hinds 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 · Damian Hinds’s register of interests and votes · Sources