Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, what the (a) total and (b) per Member cost of the House of (i) Lords and (ii) Commons was in the latest period for which data is available.

This information is not held centrally.

The basic annual salary for an MP from 1st April 2023 is £86,584. MPs also receive expenses to cover the costs of running an office, employing staff, having somewhere to live in London or their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) which was created in 2009 by the Parliamentary Standards Act, is responsible for setting and regulating MPs’ salaries, pensions, business costs and expenses. IPSA is quite rightly independent of Parliament and the Government. At the end of each financial year, IPSA publishes an annual report and accounts which can be found on IPSA’s website (https://www.theipsa.org.uk/annual-reports).

Most members of the House of Lords do not receive a salary for their parliamentary duties but are eligible to receive allowances and, within certain limits, the travel expenses they incur in fulfilling their parliamentary duties. The House of Lords publishes quarterly data on the claims made by Peers which can be found on the Parliament website (https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/whos-in-the-house-of-lords/house-of-lords-expenses/)