Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority: Research
The question
To ask the hon. Member for Warrington North, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, whether IPSA has undertaken research on the potential link between (a) average headcount per office, (b) average salaries for staff and (c) constituency populations, constituency deprivation levels, social housing waiting lists, hon. Members' additional parliamentary responsibilities and other constituency demographic information.
Answered by Charlotte Nichols
IPSA funds MPs to undertake their parliamentary duties and this includes providing MPs with budgets for travel, accomodation, office costs, and staffing. The MP is the legal employer of their staff. The structure of an MP's office and the management of the workload is decided by the MP and may differ according to variations in constituency populations, constituency deprivation levels, social housing waiting lists, Members' additional parliamentary responsibilities, and other constituency demographic information.
The core MPs' staffing budget is set to a level that will accomodate a 'notional' office of five full time equivalent staff but is intended to provide flexibility for MPs to decide how best to staff their office. Where offices require additional support, IPSA provides exceptional funding to support those in need.
IPSA will work with the House services to collect data on caseload volume and complexity to inform plans for the future.
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