Budgets and Expenses April 1st, 2013 to March 31st, 2014
Over the last 12 months my office has dealt with;
- Over 45,000 pieces of communication
- Over 1,800 Constituents cases
- 45 Surgeries
- 3 ‘Meet Your MP’ evenings
- 12 Market Stalls – Street Surgeries
- Visits to local Businesses
- Business Breakfast Forums
- Hosted 4 x local students for work experience totaling 8 weeks
- Made many 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 £137,200
- Actual Spend £125,714.58
- £11,485.42 under budget
I employed 4.40 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) on a permanent basis with a further 1 x FTE for an apprentice over the last year.
The staffing budget is to primarily staff the constituency office and the Westminster Office (on a part time basis). The role of the staff is to help with constituents’ cases, organize surgeries, co-ordinate my meetings, arrange publicity, liaise with the media and organize my communication, amongst many things. As well as dealing with these areas, we have managed to open the constituency office from 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday each week – with the exceptions of Bank Holidays. We also subscribe to a ‘Pooled’ research service which is included in these costs where much of our research is carried out for subjects which our constituents contact us about.
Accommodation Rental & Running Costs
- Budget £20,100
- Actual Spend £19,527.64
- £572.36 under budget
Hotel Accommodation
- No Budget but £150 per night max
- Actual Spend £0
- I continue to lease an apartment in 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 £9,155.92
Constituency Office Rent and Running Costs
- Allowance £22,750
- Actual Spend £22,566.17 (Includes £987.88 for surgery room hire at venues across the Calder Valley)
- £183.83 under budget
The constituency office address is First Floor, Unit 7, Brookfoot Business Park,Elland Road, Brighouse, HD6 2SD. We moved offices this year. 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 in the above costs are the room hire costs for the ‘Meet your MP’ evenings, street surgeries and Market Stalls.
Included in these costs are the printing and stationery costs for both offices and daily newspapers for the office.
Bespoke Administration HOC Administration
- Budget £8,650
- Actual Spend £8613.39
- £36.61 under budget
This budget is purely for postage and white printer paper.
Summary 2013/2014
Total Budget (items listed with no attached budget, I have made the ‘Actual’ the budget)
- £197,855.92
Total Actual Spend
- £185,577.70
Saving on Budgets 2013/2014
= £12,278.22
Craig Whittaker MP