MPs’ business costs

Matt Vickers

IPSA paid £1,233,305 against 529 published rows for Matt Vickers between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for Stockton South BC, then Stockton West 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, 2019-20 to 2025-26

529 claims, £1,233,305 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.17£946,23976.7%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.438£121,3889.8%
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.52£131,67110.7%
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.21£32,5672.6%
MiscellaneousClaims IPSA records under none of the headings above. Called “Miscellaneous Expenses” until 2018-19.1£1,4400.1%

Every year in the register

Matt Vickers’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.

YearClaimsStaffingOffice costsAccommodationTravelMiscellaneousTotal
2019-2029£23,405£3,872£9,630£3,072£39,978
2020-2182£135,208£20,450£20,332£4,955£180,945
2021-2257£162,172£17,130£23,010£5,545£207,857
2022-2388£187,499£19,489£24,534£6,720£238,242
2023-24109£200,322£25,002£24,396£5,985£255,706
2024-2599£237,633£23,934£27,045£6,290£1,440£296,342
2025-2665£11,511£2,723£14,234

A year in which Matt Vickers 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, 2019-20 to 2025-26

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

Staffing

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Payroll6£922,484
Pooled staffing services10£23,634
Training - staff1£120

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent32£51,943
Stationery & printing123£21,689
Utilities79£8,393
Postage & couriers22£8,371
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage72£7,351
Software & applications15£6,306

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent44£128,948
Utilities5£1,621
Council tax1£1,102
MP Budget Overspend2£0

Travel

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rail13£30,373
Hotel - London1£875
Air travel3£862
Mileage - car2£194
Hotel - UK Not London1£160
Hotel - European1£104

Miscellaneous

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Bought-in services1£1,440

Largest claims, 2019-20 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£234,083£234,083
31 March 2024StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2023-24 year£195,251£195,251
31 March 2023StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year£181,908£181,908
31 March 2022StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2021-22 year£156,684£156,684
31 March 2021StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2020-21 year£132,039£132,039
31 March 2025AccommodationRentAggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2024-25£27,045£27,045
31 March 2022AccommodationRentAggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2021-22£23,010£23,010
31 March 2020StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2019-20 year£22,520£22,520
31 March 2022Office CostsRentAggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2021-22£9,936£9,936
31 March 2022MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2021-22£4,769£4,769
31 March 2024MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2023-24£4,412£4,412
31 March 2023MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2022-23£4,018£4,018
31 March 2021MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2020-21£3,718£3,718
22 April 2024StaffingPooled staffing servicesPolicy Research Unit (Conservative)£3,550£3,550
18 April 2023StaffingPooled staffing servicesPolicy Research Unit (Conservative)£3,188£3,188

Claims refused and money repaid, 2019-20 to 2025-26

27 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £2,647 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 Matt Vickers 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 · Matt Vickers’s register of interests and votes · Sources