Deputy Speakers expenses (2020)
Request
Could you please give me all expense and expenditure claims by the three Deputy Speakers since their election on January 8th 2020?
This includes Dame Eleanor Laing, Chairman of Ways and Means, Dame Rosie Winterton the First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means and Nigel Evans, the Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means.
Response
Please note initially that information on Members Expenses Scheme is not held by the House of Commons. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is responsible for paying MPs’ salaries and processing expenses claims. Therefore you may wish to refer to the IPSA website where information about MPs’ salaries and expenses is published, or you may wish to contact them using the contact details provided there.
However, those Members serving as Deputy Speakers do incur expenses as a part of their work for the House as Deputy Speakers. The Deputy Speakers’ Office (Ways and Means Office) has its own budget and some of this is allocated to services for the Deputy Speakers. The Deputy Speakers do not make expense “claims” as such but goods and services rendered are deducted from this budget and recorded.
Total recorded expenses for the period 08 January 2020 to the date of your request on 16 November:
| Type | Total (inc. VAT) |
| UK travel – Government Car Service | £11,588.51 |
| UK travel – taxis | £153.00 |
| Formal Dress | £1,693.99 |
| Refreshments for inward foreign delegations | £11.20 |
| Total | £13,446.70 |
It may interest you to know that the Deputy Speakers have access to a car service in connection with their parliamentary duties. This is founded on a decision of the House of Commons Commission in 1981 that Deputy Speakers should be in the same position in relation to use of the car service as Junior Ministers and Whips. Taxis are occasionally used for urgent journeys or when the car service is not available.