Civometry

MPs’ business costs

Lillian Jones

IPSA paid £187,883 against 159 published rows for Lillian Jones between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun 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, 2024-25 to 2025-26

159 claims, £187,883 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.2£114,70361.1%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.118£44,69423.8%
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.22£18,2709.7%
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.16£10,0675.4%
MiscellaneousClaims IPSA records under none of the headings above. Called “Miscellaneous Expenses” until 2018-19.1£1500.1%

Every year in the register

Lillian Jones’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2024-25 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 costsAccommodationTravelMiscellaneousTotal
2024-25104£114,703£25,917£16,265£10,067£150£167,102
2025-2655—£18,777£2,005——£20,781

A year in which Lillian Jones 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, 2024-25 to 2025-26

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

Staffing

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Payroll1£112,403
Pooled staffing services1£2,300

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Maintenance, Redecorations & Repairs9£14,201
Business rates13£5,634
Equipment - purchase11£5,132
Software & applications4£3,545
Rent5£3,270
Utilities8£2,432

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent8£13,870
Council tax2£2,663
Hotel - London2£1,170
Utilities9£480
Hotel - UK Not London1£88

Travel

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rail4£4,430
Hotel - London2£2,677
Air travel2£2,025
Mileage - car5£807
Parking1£74
Other public transport2£53

Miscellaneous

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Removals1£150

Largest claims, 2024-25 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.

DateCategoryCost typeDescriptionClaimedPaid
31 March 2025StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2024-25 year£112,403£112,403
12 January 2025Office CostsMaintenance, Redecorations & Repairsinternal office reconfiguration / partition works to facilitate functioning working space£8,482£8,482
31 March 2025MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2024-25£3,860£3,860
31 March 2025Office CostsEquipment - purchaseOffice furniture£3,202£3,202
25 February 2025StaffingPooled staffing servicesParliamentary Research Service (Labour)£2,300£2,300
27 March 2025AccommodationRent—£2,250£2,250
27 February 2025AccommodationRent—£2,250£2,250
28 January 2025AccommodationRent—£2,250£2,250
30 December 2024AccommodationRent—£2,250£2,250
28 November 2024AccommodationRent—£2,250£2,250
29 October 2024AccommodationRent—£2,250£2,250
1 October 2024AccommodationRent—£2,250£2,250
31 March 2025MP TravelAir travelAggregated figure for travel during 2024-25£1,905£1,905
31 March 2025MP TravelHotel - LondonAggregated figure for travel during 2024-25£1,897£1,897
22 April 2025AccommodationCouncil taxCouncil Tax Invoice 2025/26£1,791£1,791

Claims refused and money repaid, 2024-25 to 2025-26

2 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £168 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 Lillian Jones 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 · Lillian Jones’s register of interests and votes · Sources