Skip to main content

Members: Costs

Volume 461: debated on Monday 18 June 2007

To ask the Leader of the House what the annual cost per hon. Member of the House is on the public purse. (142448)

The overall costs of the House of Commons are the sum of the Estimates for House of Commons: Administration and House of Commons: Members. A range of the costs within the Administration Estimate (and also within the Members Estimate) do not relate solely to Members. Information for recent years is given in the table.

£ million

Financial year

Total cost1

Total per Member2

2006-07 (provisional)

365.8

0.57

2005-06

3477.2

30.74

1 In accordance with the principles on which the accounts are prepared, the information is in resource rather than cash terms. 2 Using a figure of 646 members for 2005-06 and 2006-07. 3 Expenditure on the Administration Estimate for 2005-06 included a technical accounting adjustment for pension liabilities (£116 million) and the General Election in that year involved payment of Resettlement Grants and Winding Up Allowance to retiring Members on the Members Estimate (£9 million); adjusted for these elements, the per member figure would be £0.55 million.