Budgets and Expenses April 1st, 2017 to March 31st, 2018
Over the last 12 months my offices have dealt with;
Over 62,000 pieces of communication
Over 3,500 Constituents cases
Held dozens of Surgeries, including market stalls, drop-in surgeries, coffee mornings, and ‘Meet Your MP’ evenings.
94 Visits to local Businesses
5 Public Meetings held
Hosted 8 x local students for work experience totalling 8 weeks
Visited 28 Calder Valley primary and secondary schools
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 £153,620.00
- Actual Spend £144,510.19
- £9,109.81 under budget
I employed 3.8 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) on a permanent basis
The staffing budget is to primarily staff the constituency office. The role of the staff is to help with constituents’ cases, organise surgeries, co-ordinate my meetings, arrange publicity, liaise with the media and organise my communication, amongst other things. To deal with these areas, the constituency office operates from 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday each week – with the exceptions of Bank Holidays. We also subscribe to a ‘Pooled’ research service where much of our research is carried out for subjects which our constituents contact us about.
Accommodation Rental & Running Costs
- Budget £22,850.00
- Actual Spend £19,575.54
- £3,275.46 under budget
Hotel Accommodation
No Budget but £150 per night max
Actual Spend £0
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 £7,539.15
Constituency Office Rent and Running Costs
- Allowance £24,880.00
- Actual Spend £24,101.04
- £778.96 under budget
The constituency office address is First Floor, Unit 7, Brookfoot Business Park, Elland Road, Brighouse, HD6 2SD. The office consists of a main office and a smaller office where we have meetings and hold surgeries.
Surgeries are held every month all over the Calder Valley. Also included in the above costs are the room hire costs for the ‘Meet your MP’ evenings, street surgeries, room hire for surgeries (where the office cannot be used) and Market Stalls
Included in these costs are the printing and stationery costs for both offices.
Bespoke Administration House Of Commons (HOC) Administration
- Budget £9,000 (spent £1,220.32 up to the snap General Election 2017. Budget refreshed at £9,000 following re-election).
- Actual Spend £8,904.67 (+ £1,220.32 under previous budget)
- £7,875.01 under both budgets
This budget is purely for postage and HOC envelopes.
Summary 2017/2018
Total Budget (items listed with no attached budget, I have made it the ‘Actual’ budget.)
= £226,889.15
Total Actual Spend
= £205,850.91
Saving on Budgets 2017/2018
= £21,038.24
Craig Whittaker MP