MPs’ business costs

Mark Sewards

IPSA paid £229,216 against 312 published rows for Mark Sewards between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Leeds South West and Morley 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, 2025-26

80 claims, £25,749 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
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	53	£13,937	54.1%
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.	27	£11,813	45.9%

Every year in the register

Mark Sewards’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.

Year	Claims	Staffing	Office costs	Accommodation	Travel	Total
2024-25	232	£136,338	£23,812	£28,590	£14,727	£203,466
2025-26	80	—	£13,937	£11,813	—	£25,749

A year in which Mark Sewards 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, 2025-26

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

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Utilities	17	£2,295
Software & applications	4	£2,111
Postage & couriers	1	£1,964
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	10	£1,528
Insurance - buildings	2	£1,387
Stationery & printing	5	£1,109

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Hotel - London	15	£10,180
Council tax	4	£1,130
Utilities	7	£396
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	1	£107

Largest claims, 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
3 April 2025	Office Costs	Postage & couriers	PAYPAL ROYALMAILGR	£1,964	£1,964
16 June 2025	Office Costs	Software & applications	ELECTED TECHNOLOGIES	£1,476	£1,476
14 December 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£1,100	£1,100
24 April 2025	Office Costs	Insurance - buildings	Constituency Office Insurance	£935	£935
7 December 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£880	£880
30 November 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£880	£880
16 November 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£880	£880
9 November 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£880	£880
26 October 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£880	£880
19 October 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£880	£880
12 October 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£880	£880
11 August 2025	Office Costs	Website hosting and design	https://www.marksewards.co.uk	£875	£875
2 April 2025	Office Costs	Business rates	LEEDS CITY COUNCIL	£851	£851
2 November 2025	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£796	£796
3 January 2026	Accommodation	Hotel - London	[*][][**]	£695	£695

Claims refused and money repaid, 2025-26

1 claim carries an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £851 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 Mark Sewards 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 · Mark Sewards’s register of interests and votes · Sources