Civometry

MPs’ business costs

Victoria Collins

IPSA paid £223,450 against 230 published rows for Victoria Collins between 2024-25 and 2025-26 as the member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted 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, 2024-25 to 2025-26

230 claims, £223,450 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.3£169,64375.9%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.175£38,16417.1%
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.45£13,8136.2%
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.7£1,8300.8%

Every year in the register

Victoria Collins’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
2024-25166£169,643£20,342£12,293£1,830£204,107
2025-2664—£17,823£1,520—£19,343

A year in which Victoria Collins 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 to 2025-26

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

Staffing

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Payroll1£166,624
Pooled staffing services1£2,450
Working From Home Allowance1£569

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Business rates2£7,365
Equipment - purchase77£6,151
Software & applications28£5,182
Postage & couriers10£4,340
Stationery & printing17£4,242
Rent1£2,762

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Hotel - London35£12,139
Council tax8£1,561
Utilities2£114

Travel

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rail2£1,496
Air travel1£185
Parking2£108
Mileage - car1£37
Other public transport1£3

Largest claims, 2024-25 to 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.

DateCategoryCost typeDescriptionClaimedPaid
31 March 2025StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2024-25 year£166,624£166,624
28 October 2025Office CostsBusiness rates6 months business rates£3,683£3,683
8 April 2025Office CostsBusiness rates6 months business rates£3,683£3,683
27 March 2025Office CostsRent[***] IPSA RENT£2,762£2,762
16 August 2024Office CostsPooled staffing servicesParliamentary Support Team (Liberal Democrat)£2,450£2,450
16 August 2024StaffingPooled staffing servicesParliamentary Support Team (Liberal Democrat)£2,450£2,450
26 March 2025Office CostsEquipment - purchaseOther office equipment£1,978£1,978
10 April 2025Office CostsBought-in servicesProfessional & consultancy£1,774£1,774
20 March 2025Office CostsPostage & couriersBanner March 2025£1,700£1,700
23 September 2025Office CostsSoftware & applicationsCaseworker subscription£1,476£1,476
26 July 2024Office CostsSoftware & applicationsELECTED TECHNOLOGIES£1,440£1,440
31 March 2025Office CostsStationery & printingLetterheads£886£886
23 March 2026Office CostsStationery & printingBanner March 2026£870£870
20 March 2026Office CostsPostage & couriersBanner March 2026£870£870
20 March 2025Office CostsPostage & couriersBanner March 2025£850£850

Claims refused and money repaid, 2024-25 to 2025-26

2 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £620 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 Victoria Collins 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 Collins’s register of interests and votes · Sources