Parliamentary Expenses
I have always been more transparent than required with my parliamentary expenses.
Below I set out details of where the money was spent on the various allowances.
Office Budget - IEB.
This is money used to run the offices in London, Loughborough and at home. I have to spend the money and then reclaim it from the Fees Office and all receipts are kept. As you can see from the expenditure the so called expenses are in fact the normal costs of running an office of 3 people. These are telephone, email, web, fax, paper, postage, stationery, toner etc. In any normal office environment this would covered by the employer - it is exactly the same here. I do not get to see any of this money as a 'traditional' expense.
Additional Cost Allowance
This expense is harder to understand. I beleive it would be much better to be given a fixed overnight allowance for staying in London. However, at present we have been given an allowance to buy/rent and to furnish and pay the bills as well as fund repairs and maintenence. It is an uncomfortable allowance but the only way to claim for living in London as required by the job of being an MP working away from home.
Again I list the full expenditure I will incur in 2007-08 by heading. Again all money is spent first and reclaimed by submitting the correct forms.
Stationery.
The Fees office produces a figure based on the number of envelopes and letterheads I send out to constituents. The more I write to people the more this figure rises. I have no control over this.
Central IT
I am provided with 1 dell laptop and 3 desktop computers for my staff. This figure of about £3000 then appears as an expense against my name!
Staffing Budget
I employ staff who are paid directly by the Fees Office. They are listed on my Contact Me page. None of this money is paid to me. All staff have been openly recruited in line with equal opportunities practises and are paid at the lower end of the salary scales set out by the House of Commons Fees Office