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, 2018-19

131 claims, £199,581 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.	11	£146,715	73.5%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	98	£24,032	12.0%
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.	21	£23,576	11.8%
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	£5,258	2.6%

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, 2018-19

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£133,274
Professional Services (Staff.)	9	£13,016
Staff Training Costs	1	£425

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Const Office Rent	5	£7,500
Stationery Purchase	18	£7,024
IT/Other Equipment Hire	8	£2,628
Const Office Electricity	5	£2,127
Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental	13	£1,058
Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	14	£813

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Accommodation Rent	12	£21,213
Council Tax	2	£1,386
Electricity	5	£739
Water	2	£238

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Aggregated Travel Costs	1	£5,258

Largest claims, 2018-19

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 2019	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2018-19 year	£133,274	£133,274
31 March 2019	Travel	Aggregated Travel Costs	Aggregated figure for travel during 2018-19	£5,258	£5,258
1 May 2018	Staffing	Professional Services (Staff.)	Back Office Managment	£2,448	£2,448
2 January 2019	Staffing	Professional Services (Staff.)	Staffing	£2,000	£2,000
17 December 2018	Office Costs	Const Office Rent	—	£1,875	£1,875
13 September 2018	Office Costs	Const Office Rent	—	£1,875	£1,875
19 June 2018	Office Costs	Const Office Rent	—	£1,875	£1,875
1 April 2018	Office Costs	Const Office Rent	—	£1,849	£1,849
7 February 2019	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,833	£1,833
19 December 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,833	£1,833
29 November 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,833	£1,833
31 October 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,833	£1,833
3 October 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,833	£1,833
31 August 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,833	£1,833
1 August 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,833	£1,833

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