MPs’ business costs

Jess Phillips

IPSA paid £2,257,629 against 1,727 published rows for Jess Phillips between 2015-16 and 2025-26 as the member for Birmingham, Yardley BC, then Birmingham Yardley 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, 2015-16 to 2025-26

1,727 claims, £2,257,629 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.	149	£1,670,531	74.0%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	1,231	£267,033	11.8%
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.	252	£261,498	11.6%
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.	64	£51,971	2.3%
Starting up and winding up	The one-off costs of opening an office on election and of closing one on leaving. These fall in the years around a general election and are absent from the rest.	27	£5,722	0.3%
Miscellaneous	Claims IPSA records under none of the headings above. Called “Miscellaneous Expenses” until 2018-19.	4	£874	0.0%

Every year in the register

Jess Phillips’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2015-16 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	Starting up and winding up	Miscellaneous	Total
2015-16	152	£125,781	£19,790	£18,193	£5,547	£5,245	£95	£174,650
2016-17	119	£139,738	£22,259	£23,394	£4,057	£477	—	£189,925
2017-18	154	£150,439	£21,895	£24,942	£3,906	—	—	£201,181
2018-19	131	£146,715	£24,032	£23,576	£5,258	—	—	£199,581
2019-20	133	£139,650	£25,538	£21,135	£6,033	—	—	£192,355
2020-21	148	£174,780	£31,585	£26,118	£3,016	—	—	£235,499
2021-22	163	£185,149	£26,706	£30,472	£5,854	—	£563	£248,743
2022-23	189	£200,118	£26,236	£27,921	£6,382	—	—	£260,657
2023-24	231	£202,389	£28,246	£34,119	£6,172	—	—	£270,926
2024-25	216	£205,213	£27,495	£28,997	£5,747	—	£216	£267,667
2025-26	91	£560	£13,252	£2,633	—	—	—	£16,445

A year in which Jess Phillips 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, 2015-16 to 2025-26

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	10	£1,556,880
Bought-in services	57	£51,366
Professional Services (Staff.)	16	£45,576
Pooled staffing services	3	£11,900
Pooled Services: Direct	1	£4,000
Staff Training Costs	1	£425

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	37	£53,995
Stationery & printing	122	£26,475
Const Office Rent	18	£26,276
Stationery Purchase	65	£17,731
Utilities	168	£17,568
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	161	£11,906

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	49	£151,901
Accommodation Rent	47	£81,744
Council tax	27	£12,289
Utilities	95	£6,406
Council Tax	7	£4,569
Electricity	11	£1,791

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rail	23	£27,913
Aggregated Travel Costs	4	£18,767
Mileage - car	16	£3,756
Hotel - UK Not London	1	£543
Congestion charge & toll	9	£436
Taxi	3	£178

Starting up and winding up

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Office Furn Purch StartUp	13	£2,709
Comp SW Purch StartUp	2	£1,060
Other Equipment Purch StartUp	3	£552
Comp HW Purch StartUp	4	£454
Landline Purch StartUp	1	£299
Office Alterations StartUp	1	£288

Miscellaneous

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Removals	3	£779
Contingency	1	£95

Largest claims, 2015-16 to 2025-26

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 2025	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2024-25 year	£196,175	£196,175
31 March 2023	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year	£189,398	£189,398
31 March 2024	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2023-24 year	£189,189	£189,189
31 March 2022	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2021-22 year	£173,269	£173,269
31 March 2021	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2020-21 year	£166,140	£166,140
31 March 2018	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2017-18 year	£145,250	£145,250
31 March 2017	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2016-17 year	£137,148	£137,148
31 March 2019	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2018-19 year	£133,274	£133,274
31 March 2020	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2019-20 year	£130,422	£130,422
31 March 2016	Staffing	Payroll	Total payroll costs for the 2015-16 year	£96,616	£96,616
31 March 2022	Accommodation	Rent	Aggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2021-22	£26,876	£26,876
31 March 2025	Accommodation	Rent	Aggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2024-25	£25,470	£25,470
31 March 2025	Office Costs	Rent	Aggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2024-25	£10,201	£10,201
8 March 2016	Staffing	Professional Services (Staff.)	Constituency communications	£10,000	£10,000
31 March 2022	Office Costs	Rent	Aggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2021-22	£8,137	£8,137

Claims refused and money repaid, 2015-16 to 2025-26

15 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £4,962 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 Jess Phillips 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 · Jess Phillips’s register of interests and votes · Sources