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, 2020-21

112 claims, £189,598 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.	2	£149,534	78.9%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	90	£7,287	3.8%
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.	12	£31,200	16.5%
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.	8	£1,577	0.8%

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, 2020-21

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£146,487
Pooled staffing services	1	£3,047

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Stationery & printing	41	£2,846
Equipment - purchase	1	£1,211
Mobile telephone - contract & usage	25	£705
Venue hire, meetings & surgeries	8	£694
Software & applications	1	£600
Working From Home Allowance	1	£482

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	12	£31,200

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Mileage - car	5	£1,020
Rail	2	£516
Parking	1	£42

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	£146,487	£146,487
5 May 2020	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Policy Research Unit (Conservative)	£3,047	£3,047
16 March 2021	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
16 February 2021	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
19 January 2021	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
15 December 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
15 November 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
18 October 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
15 September 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
16 August 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
15 July 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
17 June 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
20 May 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
15 April 2020	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,600	£2,600
17 August 2020	Office Costs	Equipment - purchase	Computer, laptop, PC, tablet & accessories	£1,211	£1,211

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 £21 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 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