MPs’ business costs

Kate Osborne

IPSA paid £1,498,327 against 932 published rows for Kate Osborne between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for Jarrow BC, then Jarrow and Gateshead East 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, 2022-23

216 claims, £298,215 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.	5	£220,630	74.0%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	149	£27,328	9.2%
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.	34	£29,737	10.0%
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.	28	£20,521	6.9%

Every year in the register

Kate Osborne’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	Accommodation	Travel	Total
2019-20	25	£33,545	£1,177	£8,178	£5,355	£48,256
2020-21	163	£165,177	£19,724	£24,055	£7,375	£216,330
2021-22	144	£176,590	£23,222	£26,701	£11,074	£237,587
2022-23	216	£220,630	£27,328	£29,737	£20,521	£298,215
2023-24	187	£237,456	£38,162	£32,389	£22,545	£330,552
2024-25	141	£250,698	£31,191	£33,640	£27,352	£342,881
2025-26	56	£12,900	£8,391	£3,215	—	£24,506

A year in which Kate Osborne 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, 2022-23

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£216,581
Pooled staffing services	3	£3,350
Working From Home Allowance	1	£699

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	11	£12,262
Pooled staffing services	4	£4,600
Postage & couriers	12	£2,495
Stationery & printing	19	£2,026
Equipment - purchase	13	£1,233
Mobile telephone - equipment purchase	16	£1,220

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	12	£25,660
Utilities	4	£1,705
Council tax	3	£1,522
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	12	£437
Hotel - UK Not London	2	£375
Landline phone & internet - installation & equipment purchase	1	£38

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rail	5	£13,331
Hotel - London	1	£2,806
Air travel	4	£1,751
Hotel - UK Not London	2	£1,307
Hotel - European	1	£345
Taxi	5	£325

Largest claims, 2022-23

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 2023	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year	£216,581	£216,581
31 March 2023	MP Travel	Rail	Aggregated figure for travel during 2022-23	£8,577	£8,577
31 March 2023	Staff Travel	Hotel - London	Aggregated figure for travel during 2022-23	£2,806	£2,806
31 March 2023	Staff Travel	Rail	Aggregated figure for travel during 2022-23	£2,544	£2,544
14 March 2023	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,330	£2,330
14 February 2023	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,330	£2,330
10 January 2023	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100
13 December 2022	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100
10 November 2022	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100
11 October 2022	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100
13 September 2022	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100
10 August 2022	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100
12 July 2022	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100
14 June 2022	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100
10 May 2022	Accommodation	Rent	—	£2,100	£2,100

Claims refused and money repaid, 2022-23

2 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £3,088 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 Kate Osborne 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 · Kate Osborne’s register of interests and votes · Sources