MPs’ business costs

Sir Stephen Timms

IPSA paid £2,722,212 against 2,026 published rows for Sir Stephen Timms between 2010-11 and 2025-26 as the member for East Ham 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

81 claims, £163,043 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.	22	£139,038	85.3%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	58	£23,176	14.2%
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	£830	0.5%

Every year in the register

Sir Stephen Timms’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2010-11 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	Total
2010-11	96	£100,072	£8,608	£2,102	£110,782
2011-12	156	£115,588	£15,481	£309	£131,378
2012-13	136	£144,432	£15,515	£1,275	£161,222
2013-14	228	£140,047	£20,496	£2,253	£162,796
2014-15	305	£138,224	£20,868	£2,142	£161,233
2015-16	81	£139,038	£23,176	£830	£163,043
2016-17	82	£134,190	£19,010	£1,579	£154,779
2017-18	107	£150,424	£19,920	£734	£171,078
2018-19	112	£148,588	£22,843	£952	£172,382
2019-20	140	£140,653	£22,422	£854	£163,930
2020-21	93	£180,654	£15,863	£33	£196,550
2021-22	125	£175,815	£24,070	£215	£200,099
2022-23	102	£197,305	£25,165	£1,021	£223,491
2023-24	119	£228,654	£26,726	£809	£256,189
2024-25	104	£241,345	£30,033	£1,569	£272,947
2025-26	40	—	£20,312	—	£20,312

A year in which Sir Stephen Timms 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	£138,892
Food & Drink Volunteer	15	£65
Public Tr UND Volunteer	4	£48
Public Tr RAIL Volunteer - RT	2	£33

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	15	£12,950
Professional Services	1	£4,800
Stationery Purchase	22	£2,431
Training MP Staff	3	£1,565
Software Purchase	2	£662
Legal Exp/Emp Practice Insur.	1	£578

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Aggregated Travel Costs	1	£830

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	£138,892	£138,892
3 June 2015	Office Costs	Professional Services	Parliamentary Research Service	£4,800	£4,800
4 March 2016	Office Costs	Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	—	£4,048	£4,048
4 March 2016	Office Costs	Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	—	£4,048	£4,048
13 October 2015	Office Costs	Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	—	£2,455	£2,455
1 March 2016	Office Costs	Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	—	£900	£900
31 March 2016	Travel	Aggregated Travel Costs	Aggregated figure for travel during 2015-16	£830	£830
13 January 2016	Office Costs	Training MP Staff	Payment card	£780	£780
30 September 2015	Office Costs	Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	—	£720	£720
29 June 2015	Office Costs	Software Purchase	Cmits	£600	£600
9 August 2015	Office Costs	Legal Exp/Emp Practice Insur.	EPL	£578	£578
10 December 2015	Office Costs	Training MP Staff	Office costs: training	£395	£395
13 November 2015	Office Costs	Training MP Staff	Lizzie training	£390	£390
24 July 2015	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	Business cards	£327	£327
3 March 2016	Office Costs	Stationery Purchase	Stationery	£193	£193

Claims refused and money repaid, 2015-16

2 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £4,053 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 Sir Stephen Timms 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 · Sir Stephen Timms’s register of interests and votes · Sources