Stephen Ladyman says:
last updated - 8th March 2010
Most MPs - of all parties - are honest, hardworking and do their best to follow the rules when it comes to their expenses. Even some of my colleagues who have been widely criticised during the recent controversy have found themselves in this predicament because they were following the rules at the time! Others have clearly made errors that have rightly provoked huge anger.
It became clear, after the various revelations in the newspapers, that the system had to be reviewed and Sir Christoher Kelly has now published his proposals for reforming the system. In addition, Parliament has created a new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), under the Chairmanship of Prof. Sir Ian Kennedy, to oversea the changes and to manage the expense system in the future. Sir Thomas Legg has also carried out a full audit of every MPs expenses including mine. He has concluded that 'there are no issues' with my past claims and he has given me a 'clean bill of health'. View Legg's letter.
I first provided an on-line account of my cexpense claims in 2008 and have updated that account from time to time. I have aimed for complete transparancy and have always been open about my arrangements. The following sets out the current position in respect to the rules and my own position:
There is a new 'rulebook' for MPs to follow, in respet to expenses, until such time as the IPSA implements the Kelly Report. It came into force on April 1st 2009 and you can see it for yourself at:
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/GreenBook.pdf
and you can explore all the information published by Parliament on this subject at:
http://www.parliament.uk/site_information/allowances.cfm
I have long argued that MPs should be more open about our salary and expenses and about how we spend public money.
I can understand that some MPs will want their addresses kept secret on security grounds but we need to demonstrate openness and show that we have nothing to hide. Much of the information about our expenses has been in the publicdomain for some time if people know where to look but I have tried to set an example here by pulling that information together so people can find it for themselves more easily \nd see what I claim and how I spend it. In addition, to what is in the public domain I also provide here more details that are not in the public domain.
I first did this over 12 months ago and I've brought it up to date to show the latest information as available at November2009.
Below is a table of my expenses - extracted from the 'They Work For You' website - which is updated as and when new information is released by the House authorities:
www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/stephen_ladyman/south_thanet
A table of every MPs expenses (including the most recent published information)can be found at:
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances%2Dby%2Dmp/
and mine are at::
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances%2Dby%2Dmp/stephen%2Dladyman/
and the rules that MPs had to follow in claiming expenses during the period covered by the table shown below can be seen at:
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/HofCpsap.pdf
Expenses and ranking for the last 4 years for which figures have been calculated:
Figures in brackets are ranks.Data from parliament.uk (source). Read 2004/05 – 2008/09 and 1st quarter 2009/10 receipts.
| Type | 2008/09 (ranking out of 647) | 2007/08 (ranking out of 645) | 2006/07 (ranking out of 645) | 2005/06 | 2004/05 (ranking out of 659) | 2003/04 (ranking out of 658) | 2002/03 (ranking out of 657) | 2001/02 (ranking out of 657) |
| Staying away from main home |
£23,293 (135th) |
£22,793 (239th) |
£21,549 (307th) |
£19,930 |
£20,753 (joint 248th with 1 other) |
£20,330 (joint 163rd with 2 others) |
£19,722 (joint 1st with 230 others) |
£15,735 (joint 248th with 1 other) |
| London costs |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
£1,618 (joint 1st with 118 others) |
£1,255 (joint 107th with 10 others) |
£0 |
£0 |
| Office running costs |
£16,671 (373rd) |
£20,444 (217th) |
£20,362 (324th) |
£20,942 |
£19,188 (195th) |
£18,799 (joint 13th with 178 others) |
£18,225 (joint 223rd with 2 others) |
£25,772 (66th) |
| Staffing costs |
£92,249 (399th) |
£72,207 (601st) |
£75,292 (552nd) |
£67,415 |
£61,564 (594th) |
£58,937 (601st) |
£64,944 (315th) |
£39,512 (522nd) |
| Communications Allowance |
£6,550 (422nd) |
£10,707 (87th) |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| Members' Travel |
£6,467 (359th)1 |
£6,243 (383rd)2 |
£5,708 (415th)3 |
£4,603 |
£7,389 (448th) |
£7,575 (416th) |
£9,911 (328th) |
£8,784 (288th) |
| Members' Staff Travel |
£0 |
£0 |
£78 (391st) |
£21 |
£21 (458th) |
£110 (joint 417th with 3 others) |
£41 (451st) |
£19 (457th) |
| Members' Spouse Travel |
£0 |
£0 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| Members' Family Travel |
£0 |
£0 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| Centrally Purchased Stationery |
£5,660 (138th) |
£1,279 (132nd) |
£1,510 (156th) |
£985 |
£937 (315th) |
£853 (328th) |
£1,213 (247th) |
£1,274 (234th) |
| Stationery: Associated Postage Costs |
£2,469 (299th) |
£3,728 (218th) |
£1,905 |
£1,475 (494th) |
£1,987 (414th) |
N/A |
N/A |
| Centrally Provided Computer Equipment |
|
£1,417 (joint 57th with 2 others) |
£1,209 (joint 97th with 16 others) |
£0 |
£1,966 (joint 147th with 14 others) |
£1,966 (joint 141st with 14 others) |
£1,966 (joint 139th with 14 others) |
£1,966 (joint 133rd with 14 others) |
| Other Costs |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
£0 |
| Total |
£150,891 (319th) |
£137,559 (441st) |
£129,436 (462nd) |
£115,801 |
£114,911 (488th) |
£111,812 (489th) |
£116,022 (256th) |
£93,062 (207th) |
To understand how the staffiing allowance was spent you need to know the following: I have 2 full time staff members (one of whom is my wife Janet) and 2 part time staff members. 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 staff members 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 Incidental Expenses Provision covers the cost of office supplies, rent, telephones, electricity and other expenditure connected with my office.
The additional cost allowance (now officially called Personal Additional Accomodation Expenditure) 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 accomodation in London for when I am in Westminster. I have never claimed for kitchens, furniture, electrical goods or alterations for either property, nor have I used the allowance to refurbish property that has been sold on or 'flipped.'
I have to have a London residence as well as my home in Ramsgate because the usual end time for the Commons on Monday and Tuesday is about 11pm, on Wednesday it is about 7.45pm and on Thursday it is about 6.45pm. With committee meetings, correspondence and other duties, I am in my office by 8am on these days, which would be impossible if I had to commute from the constituency given the usual 'end times' of the Parliamentary day. Fridays and weekends are usually spent working in South Thanet but there are a number of Friday sitting days in the Commons (primarily for Private Members Bills) that I attend also.
The register of members interests is a public record of what other remuneration I receive. My entry in the register can be found under my name at:
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/memi02.htm
This includes second job earnings and the hours spent on any other employment. I provide advice to a company that sells traffic information and they pay me a monthly retainer. This involves me in a few hours work, done in my personal time, each month and if necessary I attend meetings for them in the recesses. All this is reported at the above link.
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
MPs pay is set out in the following document:
www.parliament.uk/about/how/members/pay_mps.cfm
The recent controversy was 'sparked' by the release of information gathered from receipts and claim forms by the Daily Telegraph. In the interests of complete transparancy I set up a web page where you could see this material for yourself. Now the same information is provided by Parliament itself and you can find it at:
http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances%2Dby%2Dmp/stephen%2Dladyman/
After I first posted information about my expenses on line (in 2008) some constituents asked for further detail, especially of the Incidental Expenses Allowance and the Additional Cost Allowance and all that information is included above and in the links provided. However, the following comments may help those readers who are trying to understand my claims.
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 (now the Personal Additional Accomodation Expenditure or PAAE) is provided to fund a second home because MPs have to spend a large part of their time in London. For most of the time I was a Minister (2003-2007) the rules 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.
I review the number of nights I spend in London regularly in order to comply with the rules and until recently, although I am no longer a Minister, I still spent about 55% of nights in London so had to claim against my constituency property. I have been reorganising some of my arrangements in recent months and this has changed the balance of nights spent in London and the constituency. I have also sold my London property (capital gains tax will be paid at the proper time) and I am now renting a room in London and have reduced my expenditure and expense claims accordingly. I, therefore, applied to the Committee on Members Allowances for permission tochange the property designated as my main home to the one in Ramsgate. They have now approved this change and so from July 31st 09 my PAAE claims will be based on my main home being in Ramsgate.
The amounts claimed against this allowance (up to July 31st) 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. From 31st July the claim will be made largely against room rent in London.
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.
