MPs’ business costs

Dr Rupa Huq

IPSA paid £1,603,985 against 1,203 published rows for Dr Rupa Huq between 2015-16 and 2025-26 as the member for Ealing Central and Acton 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, 2015-16

169 claims, £95,141 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.	114	£85,165	89.5%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	52	£8,836	9.3%
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	£150	0.2%
Starting up and winding up	The one-off costs of opening an office on election and of closing one on leaving. These fall in the years around a general election and are absent from the rest.	2	£990	1.0%

Every year in the register

Dr Rupa Huq’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	Travel	Starting up and winding up	Miscellaneous	Total
2015-16	169	£85,165	£8,836	£150	£990	—	£95,141
2016-17	178	£109,649	£8,510	£282	£4,514	—	£122,955
2017-18	103	£124,895	£3,463	£493	—	£24	£128,874
2018-19	79	£124,006	£3,553	£1,025	—	—	£128,584
2019-20	134	£139,983	£2,728	£315	—	—	£143,026
2020-21	65	£158,173	£14,266	£92	—	—	£172,531
2021-22	73	£145,668	£18,390	£274	—	—	£164,333
2022-23	90	£181,945	£16,224	£345	—	—	£198,513
2023-24	165	£166,436	£37,132	£244	—	£912	£204,725
2024-25	107	£199,370	£35,098	£177	—	—	£234,645
2025-26	40	£1,932	£8,726	—	—	—	£10,658

A year in which Dr Rupa Huq 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, 2015-16

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£81,722
Professional Services (Staff.)	2	£2,880
Public Tr UND Volunteer	49	£308
Food & Drink Volunteer	61	£233
Health and Welfare Costs	1	£22

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Stationery Purchase	33	£4,410
Professional Services	2	£2,280
Computer HW Purchase	3	£856
Legal Exp/Emp Practice Insur.	1	£578
Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	5	£505
Other Equip Purchase	5	£151

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Aggregated Travel Costs	1	£150

Starting up and winding up

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Recruitment StartUp	1	£800
Comp HW Purch StartUp	1	£190

Largest claims, 2015-16

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 2016	Staffing	Payroll	Total payroll costs for the 2015-16 year	£81,722	£81,722
6 July 2015	Office Costs	Professional Services	Staff to help set up office	£1,920	£1,920
18 June 2015	Staffing	Professional Services (Staff.)	Payment for setting up office	£1,760	£1,760
25 July 2015	Staffing	Professional Services (Staff.)	Staffing set up	£1,120	£1,120
6 August 2015	Start Up	Recruitment StartUp	Office Manager Temp assistance	£800	£800
15 December 2015	Office Costs	Computer HW Purchase	Computer + Travel	£778	£778
22 March 2016	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	Letterhead Over Printing	£719	£719
28 July 2015	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	August Pymnt Crd	£620	£620
9 August 2015	Office Costs	Legal Exp/Emp Practice Insur.	EPL	£578	£578
20 January 2016	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	Letterhead Overprinting	£432	£432
1 July 2015	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	Banner	£430	£430
26 August 2015	Office Costs	Professional Services	RICS Survey Ruskin Hall	£360	£360
27 June 2015	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	Banner	£336	£336
22 June 2015	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	Banner	£336	£336
16 March 2016	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	Banner	£291	£291

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 Dr Rupa Huq 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 · Dr Rupa Huq’s register of interests and votes · Sources