MPs’ business costs

Victoria Atkins

IPSA paid £1,711,479 against 600 published rows for Victoria Atkins between 2015-16 and 2025-26 as the member for Louth and Horncastle 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, 2018-19

36 claims, £168,039 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.	2	£143,311	85.3%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	14	£4,361	2.6%
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.	19	£16,349	9.7%
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	£4,017	2.4%

Every year in the register

Victoria Atkins’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	Accommodation	Travel	Starting up and winding up	Total
2015-16	54	£79,700	£9,138	£8,217	£3,189	£1,776	£102,020
2016-17	76	£129,154	£7,452	£12,223	£4,324	£1,876	£155,030
2017-18	49	£137,905	£5,195	£12,414	£3,619	—	£159,133
2018-19	36	£143,311	£4,361	£16,349	£4,017	—	£168,039
2019-20	33	£135,656	£1,553	£13,750	£3,448	—	£154,407
2020-21	40	£146,215	£6,026	£13,750	£92	—	£166,083
2021-22	66	£147,074	£8,788	£15,000	£848	—	£171,710
2022-23	90	£138,938	£14,551	£13,750	£2,830	—	£170,069
2023-24	75	£184,457	£8,067	£17,150	£2,355	—	£212,029
2024-25	54	£209,178	£8,041	£20,462	£3,120	—	£240,801
2025-26	27	—	£10,511	£1,649	—	—	£12,160

A year in which Victoria Atkins 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, 2018-19

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

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	1	£140,217
Pooled Services: Direct	1	£3,094

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Computer HW Purchase	1	£1,314
Stationery Purchase	5	£1,112
Computer SW Purchase	1	£900
Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental	4	£700
Venue Hire Surgery/Meeting	1	£200
Const Office Gas	1	£95

Accommodation

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Accommodation Rent	16	£14,427
Council Tax	2	£1,822
Service Charges	1	£100

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Aggregated Travel Costs	1	£4,017

Largest claims, 2018-19

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 2019	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2018-19 year	£140,217	£140,217
31 March 2019	Travel	Aggregated Travel Costs	Aggregated figure for travel during 2018-19	£4,017	£4,017
22 August 2018	Staffing	Pooled Services: Direct	PRU	£3,094	£3,094
6 April 2018	Office Costs	Computer HW Purchase	April Card Payment	£1,314	£1,314
20 February 2019	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
17 January 2019	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
16 December 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
16 November 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
16 October 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
13 September 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
18 August 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
18 July 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
19 June 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
5 June 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,250	£1,250
1 April 2018	Accommodation	Accommodation Rent	—	£1,106	£1,106

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 Victoria Atkins 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 · Victoria Atkins’s register of interests and votes · Sources