This Research Paper reviews recent developments in Members’ pay and expenses, and in ministerial salaries. It sets out current rates and provides a summary of expense limits, from 2010/11, under the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses.
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Following the passage of the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, in the wake of the expenses scandal, the responsibility for determining a scheme for and reimbursing Members’ expenses was transferred to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). Its first MPs’ Expenses Scheme came into force on the day after the 2010 General Election.
In its review of Members’ allowances the Committee on Standards in Public Life recommended that IPSA should also have responsibility for determining Members’ pay. Provisions to give this effect were passed in 2010 and the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 was amended. IPSA took on this responsibility in May 2011. In May 2012, IPSA launched a review of Members’ pay. In January 2013, in line with the Government’s policy on public sector pay, it announced that Members’ salaries would increase by one per cent in both April 2013 and April 2104, to £66,396 and £67,060, respectively.