MPs’ business costs

Gareth Davies

IPSA paid £1,170,841 against 669 published rows for Gareth Davies between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for Grantham and Stamford CC, then Grantham and Bourne 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, 2023-24

115 claims, £248,130 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.1£194,60078.4%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.92£13,4675.4%
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.15£35,64914.4%
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.7£4,4151.8%

Every year in the register

Gareth Davies’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
2019-2038£39,166£5,996£6,507£1,852£53,521
2020-21117£140,167£23,547£17,441£2,223£183,378
2021-2281£156,082£10,579£26,715£3,106£196,482
2022-23122£164,005£14,742£24,700£4,946£208,393
2023-24115£194,600£13,467£35,649£4,415£248,130
2024-25146£211,358£19,992£38,921£3,205£273,475
2025-2650£4,505£2,957£7,462

A year in which Gareth Davies 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, 2023-24

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

Staffing

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Payroll1£194,600

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Pooled staffing services1£3,188
Rent12£2,950
Equipment - purchase1£2,758
Software & applications15£1,452
Stationery & printing34£1,056
Mobile telephone - contract & usage12£530

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent12£35,491
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage3£158

Travel

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Mileage - car3£2,755
Rail3£1,647
Parking1£12

Largest claims, 2023-24

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 2024StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2023-24 year£194,600£194,600
1 October 2023AccommodationRentLondon accommodation£3,257£3,257
4 September 2023AccommodationRentLondon accommodation£3,257£3,257
1 September 2023AccommodationRentLondon accommodation£3,257£3,257
25 May 2023Office CostsPooled staffing servicesPolicy Research Unit (Conservative)£3,188£3,188
24 January 2024AccommodationRentLondon Accommodation£3,120£3,120
1 November 2023AccommodationRentLondon accommodation£3,120£3,120
4 September 2023AccommodationRentLondon Accommodation£3,120£3,120
4 September 2023AccommodationRentLondon accommodation£3,120£3,120
28 September 2023Office CostsEquipment - purchaseOther office equipment£2,758£2,758
1 June 2023AccommodationRentLondon Accommodation£2,757£2,757
8 August 2023AccommodationRentLondon accommodation£2,747£2,747
1 July 2023AccommodationRentLondon Accommodation£2,747£2,747
1 May 2023AccommodationRentLondon accommodation£2,747£2,747
31 March 2024MP TravelMileage - carAggregated figure for travel during 2023-24£2,662£2,662

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 Gareth Davies 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 · Gareth Davies’s register of interests and votes · Sources