Budgets and Expenses April 1st, 2011 to March 31st, 2012
All expenses are regulated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) and all expenses are published on their website in a cycle;
Thursday 1st March 2012 – Claims processed in October and November 2011
Thursday 10th May 2012 – Claims processed in December 2011 and January 2012
Thursday 12th July 2012 – Claims processed in February and March 2012
In light of the time delay of IPSA as illustrated above, I now attach a full breakdown of all of my expenses for the full financial year of 2011/2012 with explanations on each topic. I’ve done this earlier than the anticipated IPSA announcements because I feel that July is quite a long time span from the end of the financial year. As a result, the figure published below may slightly vary from the finalized accounts.
Over the last 12 months my offices have dealt with;
- Over 36,500 pieces of communication (c26,000 emails, 7,800 letters and 2,700 telephone calls)
- Over 2,000 Constituents cases
- 45 Surgeries
- 3 ‘Meet Your MP’ evenings
- Visits to over 50 local Businesses
- 5 Business Breakfast Forums
- Hosted 7 x local students for work experience totalling 15 weeks
- Made over 10 school visits
- Met with many local charities; social enterprises and voluntary groups
I will now outline the six areas I have a budget for and show my actual expenditure within these areas.
Staffing
- Budget £115,000
- Actual Spend £108,454.41
- £6545.59 under budget
I employed 3.13 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) on a permanent basis with a further 2.2 x FTE on a temporary basis over the last year, to deal with backlogs and peak periods.
Accommodation Rental & Running Costs
- Budget £19,900
- Actual Spend £18,667.10
- £1232.90 under budget
Hotel Accommodation
- No Budget but £150 per night max
- Actual Spend £0
- I continue to lease an apartment in the East End of London.
MPs & Staff Travel Costs
- No Budget but the cost of a standard class day ticket allowed. Staff Travel – Allowance of 96 single Journeys total per year for all members of staff
- Actual Spend £4,480.27
As previously reported in the Register of Financial Interests for Members’, Grand Central Trains gave each MP whose constituencies their trains run, a free travel pass for First Class travel between their constituency and London. This is estimated to save the tax payer c£4,000 per year.
Grand Central Trains were taken over by ‘Arriva’ last year and their policy is not to supply free travel to MPs. The travel pass expired on 31st of December 2011.
Constituency Office Rent and Running Costs
- Allowance £21,500
- Actual Spend £16,050.92 (Includes £1,264.10 for surgery room hire at venues across the Calder Valley)
- £5449.08 under budget
The constituency Office address is 1st Floor, Spring Villa, 16 Church Lane, Brighouse, HD6 1AT. The office consists of a main office and a smaller office where we have meetings and also hold surgeries for the Brighouse area.
Surgeries are held every month and are generally held in Brighouse, Todmorden, Ripponden, Hebden Bridge and Elland. Also included here are the room hire costs for the ‘Meet your MP’ evenings.
Included in these costs are printing and stationery costs for both offices, mobile phone hire and daily newspapers for the office.
Bespoke Administration HOC Administration
- Budget £7,000
- Actual Spend £4,857.48
- £21,42.52 under budget
This budget is purely for postage and white printer paper.
Summary 2011/2012
Total Budget (items listed with no attached budget, I have made the ‘Actual’ the budget)
- £167,880.27
Total Actual Spend
- £152,510.18
Savings on budget 2011/12
- £15,370.09
Craig Whittaker MP.