Andrew Stunell's Expenses 2001-2008

My Expenses 2008-09.

In addition to their salaries, MPs are given a series of allowances to help them with their work. These include budgets to run their offices. For each item I buy using these allowances I have to put in a claim which is then scrutinised by parliamentary civil servants. It has now been announced that this scrutiny is to be put into the hands of an independent commission. The allowances are exactly that - allowances available to an MP to serve their constituents as they see best.

The three biggest items are the Communications Allowance, Staffing Allowance, and Incidental Expenses Allowance. Unlike comparable jobs, I am directly responsible for paying the salaries and National Insurance of the staff who work for me, and for paying for all the costs of the constituency office they work in.

Every day there are emails, letters and telephone calls from constituents. They might be about an ongoing issue they have with a Government department (such as Tax Credits or the Child Support Agency), or from residents contacting me to lobby me about a particular Bill about to go through Parliament or on a policy issue that is important to them.

I aim to give everyone who gets in touch a proper reply, and the Communications Allowance provides me with the ability to do this. It pays for stationery (paper, envelopes, stamps etc.), which allows me to keep in contact with my constituents, and to better respond to their problems.

In order to get problems fixed as quickly and effectively as possible, I also employ staff to assist in casework and other related matters. Approximately three quarters of my office budget is spent on staff - this is by far the biggest cost in running my office - but one that is essential considering the high volume of work this allows me to do on behalf of constituents.

In addition to two caseworkers, I also employ an office manager and an assistant, based in my constituency office in Romiley (all part time), and a Parliamentary researcher (full time), based in Westminster. All my staff have standard House of Commons contracts of employment, and none are related to me.

The second largest payment is for the rent and running costs of my office in Romiley, including phones, business rates, heating and light, as well as 'consumables' like printer ink and headed stationery.

I travel to and from London each week, normally by train, standard class, and using a 'saver' ticket whenever possible. In London I have a single bedroom flat to sleep in on week nights. The flat is on a long lease. I reclaim the cost of the interest on the mortgage of this from the Additional Costs Allowance (renamed 'Personal Additional Accommodation Expenditure' recently) but I have never reached the ceiling of the allowance (£24,006 this year), and last year my bill was one of the lowest. I do claim for the cost of keeping the flat in good condition - for instance in 2007 claiming for replacement windows and the removal of asbestos panels when the rest of the block was being refurbished by the landlord (£6000), and in 2004 for a new boiler when the old one was declared unfit. Last year I replaced the carpets - it is a condition of the lease to have the rooms carpeted (£1775). Over the years I have also claimed for items of furniture. You can see most of it if you take a look at my flat, pictures of which you can see on the various pages in this section on expenses.

It would cost tax-payers around twice as much if I were to stay in a hotel when in London. I have written to Sir Christopher Kelly to ask him to recommend a fair way of any increase in capital value of MPs' second homes being shared between the taxpayer and the MP when it is sold in proportion to the money they have put into it.

As the table below of my claims made in the past four years shows I keep my expenses as low as possible consistent with providing constituents with a good service.

Global figures for all MPs' expenses can be found in a similar format to those below on the independent web site theyworkforyou.com. For more general information about Parliamentary allowances, and the rules of claiming them you can visit: http://www.parliament.uk/site_information/allowances.cfm.

Andrew Stunell budgets: maximum allowance and actual amount spent

Please note the Maximum Allowances for each area in 2007/08 were as follows:

ACA Maximum of £23,083

London Supplement: £2,812

IEP maximum of £21,339

Staffing Allowance maximum of £90,505

Stationery maximum of £7,000

Communications Allowance of £10,000 was introduced in 2007/08 to support MPs in their communication of non-party political information to their constituents.Funds can be transferred from the Incidental Expenses Provision and Staffing Allowance to the Communications Allowance. However, funds cannot be transferred from the Communications Allowance to any other parliamentary allowance. In 2007/08 £3,861 was transferred to the Communications Allowance from the IEP

All figures have been provided courtesy of www.parliament.uk/about_commons/hocallowances/hocallowances06.cfm and www.theyworkforyou.com