MPs’ business costs

David Simmonds

IPSA paid £1,118,062 against 300 published rows for David Simmonds between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner 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

26 claims, £44,327 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.	1	£42,932	96.9%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	19	£1,171	2.6%
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.	6	£224	0.5%

Every year in the register

David Simmonds’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.

Year	Claims	Staffing	Office costs	Travel	Total
2019-20	26	£42,932	£1,171	£224	£44,327
2020-21	46	£168,658	£14,655	£729	£184,042
2021-22	38	£180,969	£12,622	£637	£194,228
2022-23	47	£188,782	£16,494	£1,602	£206,878
2023-24	70	£211,579	£18,123	£1,607	£231,309
2024-25	58	£238,409	£13,457	£1,031	£252,897
2025-26	15	—	£4,380	—	£4,380

A year in which David Simmonds 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

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£42,932

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Pooled staffing services	1	£885
Stationery & printing	11	£112
Advertising and contact cards	1	£70
Mobile telephone - contract & usage	1	£50
Cleaning services	4	£37
Hospitality	1	£17

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Mileage - car	2	£156
Congestion charge & toll	2	£58
Parking	2	£11

Largest claims, 2019-20

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 2020	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2019-20 year	£42,932	£42,932
6 March 2020	Office Costs	Pooled staffing services	Policy Research Unit (Conservative)	£885	£885
31 March 2020	MP Travel	Mileage - car	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£102	£102
17 February 2020	Office Costs	Advertising and contact cards	Advertising details for booking surgery appointments in local Harefield publication	£70	£70
31 March 2020	MP Travel	Mileage - car	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£54	£54
11 March 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner February 2020	£53	£53
20 January 2020	Office Costs	Mobile telephone - contract & usage	VESTA VODAFONE	£50	£50
31 March 2020	MP Travel	Congestion charge & toll	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£35	£35
31 March 2020	MP Travel	Congestion charge & toll	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£23	£23
12 February 2020	Office Costs	Cleaning services	Banner January 2020	£20	£20
28 February 2020	Office Costs	Hospitality	PALMA DELI	£17	£17
12 February 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner January 2020	£14	£14
12 February 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner January 2020	£14	£14
31 March 2020	MP Travel	Parking	Aggregated figure for travel during 2019-20	£9	£9
12 February 2020	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	Banner January 2020	£9	£9

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 David Simmonds 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 · David Simmonds’s register of interests and votes · Sources