Figures in brackets are ranks. Parliament's explanatory notes.

^* Car £4,763 (163rd). Rail £945 (423rd).

I have 3 full time staff members (one of whom is my wife Janet) and two part time staff members (one of whom is a permanent employee and the other a 'casual' employee). All of them work in my Ramsgate office which is open during normal office hours (9 to 5, although from 1 to 2 the office closes for lunch) except in August when the office closes for the afternoon from 1pm. Each of my permanent staff has a contract of employment and job description which is lodged with the House of Commons authorities. All my staff are paid directly by the House of Commons from the funds shown in the table above. All have salaries in line with the official guidance for the work they do and that guidance can be seen at: 

www.w4mp.org/html/library/salaries/payrates_apr2007.asp

The additional cost allowance covers the cost of maintaining two homes. One in Ramsgate, the address of which is widely known locally and appears on the ballot paper at general elections, and the other a flat in London for when I am in Westminster. I have never claimed for kitchens, furniture, electrical goods or alterations for either property.

The register of members interests is a public record of what other funding I receive. My entry in the register can be found under my name at:

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/memi02.htm

Donations or other funding for political purposes to me or to the Labour Party can be found by searching the 'register of regulated donees' under my name, or the 'register of donations to political parties' under the name South Thanet Labour Party at:

www.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/registers.cfm

Last but not least, the latest rates of pay for MPs can be found at:

www.parliament.uk/about/how/members/pay_mps.cfm

Addendum:

Since posting this some constituents have asked for further detail, especially of the Incidental Expenses Allowance and the Additional Cost Allowance.  This is not easy to provide as the House of Commons does not provide a breakdown of how much is claimed in each year in any more detail than that provided above. It would involve me in going back through all the claims I made in any given year and adding up all the receipts!

I assume the House will start providing this breakdown for future years (possibly starting with 07/08 when those figures are produced later in 2008) and when they do I will provide them here. In the meantime, the main items of expenditure that make up my claim for Incidental Expenses are the cost of hiring my offices (about 31% of the total), telephones (8%) and electricity(5%). The remainder is made up of consumeable items such as printer cartridges, staionery etc and miscellaneous items (waste collection, photocopier lease etc). All of these items are claimed against receipts with the exception of petty cash items (coffee, milk, light bulbs and the various small items that are needed in a busy office). I rent my office from the Labour Party - which owns the freehold and paid for the renovations that were needed - and the rent they are paid is in line with local commercial rents for a property of its size and was agreed after an independent evaluation which was submitted to the House of Commons.

The Additional Cost Allowance is provided to fund a second home because MPs have to spend a large part of their time in London.  At the time of the figures shown above I was a Minister and the rules, up to about 2 years ago, were that Ministers had to assume that their main home was in London, irrespective of how many nights they stayed there, and claim against their property in the constituency. The rules were then changed to say that the claim should be made against whichever property the MP spent fewest nights in, which is still, usually, the constituency property. In my case I review the number of nights I spend in London regularly in order to comply with the rules and currently, although I am no longer a Minister, I still spend about 55% of nights in London so have to claim against my constituency property. The amounts claimed in 06/07 against this allowance were made up largely of interest payments - but not capital - on part of my mortgage for the purchase of my Constituency home (56%), council tax and water Rates (10%) and the remainder is for telephone line rentals, insurance and for food etc when away on Parliamentary business. No claims were made for alterations, furniture, electrical equipment or any capital items of this nature on any property.

As and when further details become available I will provide them. The key point I would stress is that all my expense claims are made in accordance with the rules and they reimburse me for expenses necessarily incurred as a result of my duties as an MP. Because of the unique nature of an MPs job there has to be a range of expenses available but the principle is the same as for any worker - your salary is yours to do with as you wish and expenses can be claimed so that you can do your job without being out of pocket. If any expense payments are made that can be interpteted as a benefit in kind then they are taxable. Nor can we claim expenses for our political work or campaigning - those are paid for by our Party or from our own pocket.