MPs’ business costs

Tom Hayes

IPSA paid £242,905 against 125 published rows for Tom Hayes between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Bournemouth East 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, 2024-25

63 claims, £222,020 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.7£177,90580.1%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.31£22,45810.1%
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.15£17,3417.8%
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.10£4,3171.9%

Every year in the register

Tom Hayes’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.

YearClaimsStaffingOffice costsAccommodationTravelTotal
2024-2563£177,905£22,458£17,341£4,317£222,020
2025-2662£11,903£8,982£20,885

A year in which Tom Hayes 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, 2024-25

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

Staffing

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Payroll1£159,290
Bought-in services5£15,615
Pooled staffing services1£3,000

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Maintenance, Redecorations & Repairs3£9,021
Equipment - purchase5£5,427
Recruitment Services &Costs2£5,130
Rent1£1,184
Venue hire, meetings & surgeries6£1,070
Stationery & printing9£415

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent8£13,779
Hotel - London4£2,164
Utilities2£783
Council tax1£616

Travel

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rail5£3,146
Hotel - London2£984
Hotel - UK Not London1£148
Mileage - car1£26
Parking1£13

Largest claims, 2024-25

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£159,290£159,290
16 March 2025Office CostsMaintenance, Redecorations & RepairsWorks done to create constituency office including a meeting room, kitchen & plastering£6,645£6,645
8 April 2025StaffingBought-in servicesProfessional & consultancy£5,100£5,100
6 March 2025StaffingBought-in servicesProfessional & consultancy£5,100£5,100
17 September 2024StaffingBought-in servicesProfessional & consultancy£3,420£3,420
7 September 2024Office CostsRecruitment Services &CostsRecruitment£3,420£3,420
3 October 2024StaffingPooled staffing servicesParliamentary Research Service (Labour)£3,000£3,000
25 March 2025Office CostsEquipment - purchaseOffice furniture£2,651£2,651
24 March 2025Office CostsMaintenance, Redecorations & RepairsInstalling of electric sockets, lights, water boiler, emergency lighting£2,300£2,300
25 March 2025AccommodationRent£2,200£2,200
25 February 2025AccommodationRent£2,200£2,200
28 January 2025AccommodationRent£2,200£2,200
24 December 2024AccommodationRent£2,200£2,200
26 November 2024AccommodationRent£2,200£2,200
24 October 2024AccommodationRent£2,200£2,200

Claims refused and money repaid, 2024-25

1 claim carries an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £122 not paid and £0 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 Tom Hayes 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 · Tom Hayes’s register of interests and votes · Sources