Local MP Ian Lucas Doesn’t Top Expense Table

The most recent Parliamentary claims and expenses figures have revealed that Wrexham MP Ian Lucas claimed £37,865.95 in expenses over the last 12 months, a figure lower than others nearby.

This is down on the results of 2011 / 2012 when Mr Lucas claimed £49,269.72, however this year’s results are still more than 2010 / 2011 in which £20,573.39 was claimed by the MP.

The results published by IPSA (the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) show the details of the expenses claimed by MPs under the MPs’ Business Costs and Expenses Scheme, in accordance with its publication policy.

The details are published in two monthly cycles and are broken down into several sections; Accommodation, Office Costs and Travel. Each of these have further sub-sections allowing for food and drink, stationery, council tax and office electricity.

With regards to accommodation, Mr Lucas claimed a little over £16,640 on rent since the start of the financial year in April of last year. This is a total of £1,386.67 a month. Under accommodation, factors such as electricity, council tax, water and television licence fees are also covered. In which just over £1415 was claimed.

MPs are also allowed to claim on office costs which covers business rates (£1,679.33), electricity (£309.42), gas (£751.47), rent (£6,294.48), telephone / line usage (£986.33), mobile phones (£803.29) and water (£275.67). ‘Other’ supplies for the office, including milk and tea for staff (to name but a few) amounted to £1011.33.

Within office costs, claims on newspapers and journals are also covered, including £107.24 claimed for local newspapers, along with £1838.08 claimed on stationery. Claims marked as ‘other’, security, other equipment purchases, parliamentary accountancy and caseworker software purchases received £2036.31. Alongside this, £438 was spent on training and £217 was spent on waste disposal.

Travel expenses are also covered, with Mr Lucas claiming £4116.79 on expenses such as taxis, food and drink in parliament, along with own car mileage and train fees. Mr Lucas claimed for first class train travel three times during the year, totalling £196, however due to the nature of train pricing the tax payers funded two standard tickets which each cost more than that combined amount – £242.

Train ticket fees featured a combination of single and return trips, with the price of a standard ticket being claimed. More London associated expenses included £10 claimed for a congestion charge and £85 in total claimed for food and drink both in and out of parliament.

In total £1,558,069.46 was claimed by MPs throughout Wales. However more than £400,000 of this was claimed by MPs from constituencies in North Wales.

Overall it was Aberconwy MP Guto Bebb who had the highest total of expenses claimed in North Wales with £53,695. However the MP from North Wales who claimed the least in expenses was Clwyd South MP, Susan Jones, who claimed £32,219.64.

The ‘league table’ for comparison is below, and the dataset we have used can be found in this XLS file here. You can view the Parliamentary Standards website here, and use this search function to find specific data out about MP’s.

Expenses claimed by MPs in North Wales:

Guto Bebb (Conservative, Aberconwy): £53,695.82

Chris Ruane (Labour, Vale of Clwyd): £46,886.09

David Hanson (Labour, Delyn): £45,348.79

Mark Tami (Labour, Alyn and Deeside): £42,976.23

Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru, Arfon): £42,364.55

Albert Owen (Labour, Ynys Môn): £38,785.40

Ian Lucas, (Labour Wrexham): £37,865.95

David Jones (Conservative, Clwyd West): £37,604.33

Susan Jones (Labour, Clwyd South): £32,219.64