MPs’ business costs

Simon Lightwood

IPSA paid £786,607 against 546 published rows for Simon Lightwood between 2022-23 and 2025-26 as the member for Wakefield CC, then Wakefield and Rothwell 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

69 claims, £16,818 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.	64	£14,829	88.2%
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.	5	£1,989	11.8%

Every year in the register

Simon Lightwood’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2022-23 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	Miscellaneous	Total
2022-23	122	£114,830	£15,116	£28,699	£13,061	—	£171,705
2023-24	221	£195,860	£33,186	£32,416	£12,279	£2,302	£276,043
2024-25	134	£242,940	£30,472	£35,092	£13,538	—	£322,042
2025-26	69	—	£14,829	£1,989	—	—	£16,818

A year in which Simon Lightwood 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
Stationery & printing	22	£5,060
Utilities	15	£3,490
Maintenance, Redecorations & Repairs	6	£2,728
Software & applications	3	£1,142
Equipment - purchase	8	£924
Waste disposal, confidential waste & rubbish collection	4	£677

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Council tax	2	£1,102
Utilities	3	£887

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
25 March 2026	Office Costs	Maintenance, Redecorations & Repairs	Building works to office - plastering, brickwork and flooring	£2,088	£2,088
10 April 2025	Accommodation	Council tax	WWW.WESTMINSTER.GOV.UK	£990	£990
12 January 2026	Office Costs	Utilities	Dual Fuel	£877	£877
16 June 2025	Office Costs	Software & applications	ELECTED TECHNOLOGIES	£738	£738
10 April 2025	Accommodation	Utilities	Water	£536	£536
14 May 2025	Office Costs	Utilities	Dual Fuel	£430	£430
3 April 2025	Office Costs	Waste disposal, confidential waste & rubbish collection	Annual refuse collection charge for constituency office	£412	£412
28 January 2026	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	XMA February 2026	£408	£408
28 January 2026	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	XMA February 2026	£408	£408
28 January 2026	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	XMA February 2026	£408	£408
28 January 2026	Office Costs	Stationery & printing	XMA February 2026	£332	£332
6 August 2025	Office Costs	Utilities	Dual Fuel	£314	£314
11 February 2026	Office Costs	Utilities	Gas	£307	£307
12 December 2025	Office Costs	Software & applications	KAPWING PRO PLAN	£297	£297
12 November 2025	Office Costs	Utilities	Dual Fuel	£281	£281

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 Simon Lightwood 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 · Simon Lightwood’s register of interests and votes · Sources