Question

To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, how many responses were received to IPSA's public consultation on MPs staffing allocations; of these, how many related to internships; and if he will make a statement on the outcome of that consultation.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.

Letter from Marcial Boo, October 2014:

As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking about IPSA's consultation on the staffing expenditure budget.

IPSA last consulted the public and MPs on the composition of the staffing expenditure budget in November 2011. We asked on what basis we should calculate the staffing expenditure budget and whether we should take into account factors such as the relative deprivation of the constituency. The relevant consultation question received 45 responses, four of which mentioned interns. All of our public consultations and the responses are available on our website www.parliamentarystandards.org.uk

Following the consultation, for 2012-13 we increased MPs’ staffing expenditure budgets by 19% for non-London Area MPs and 25 per cent for London Area MPs.

We have reviewed the level of the staffing expenditure budget as part of subsequent annual reviews and further increased the budget by 1 per cent this year. For 2014-15 the budget is £138,600 for non-London Area MPs and £145,500 for London Area MPs.