What we do
IPSA’s principal activities are the effective administration and regulation of MPs’ expenses, and the payment of MPs’ and MPs’ staff members salaries.
The administration and regulation of expenses comprises a number of activities, including:
Setting the expenses rules. The rules are kept under regular review in order to ensure they are fair, workable and transparent;
Managing submitted expenses. This includes the management of the records of some 10,000 claims per month, which are submitted online and evidenced with original receipts and invoices;
Verifying expense claims. A team of validators checks every claim to ensure it is within the rules and backed up with appropriate evidence;
Reviewing claim determinations. Auditors carry out post-payment checks on validators’ determinations, and carry out reviews when MPs query a validator’s decision;
Publishing details of MPs’ expense claims.
In addition to these activities, we also:
Pay the salaries of MPs and their staff;
Publish details of MPs’ expense claims;
Offer MPs a range of support services, answering hundreds of telephone calls and emails each week;
Provide MPs and their staff training in the use of the online expenses system; and
Operate a public information telephone line
As a public sector organisation we are obliged to carry out a range of additional activities, including:
Answering Freedom of Information and Subject Access requests;
Preparing and publishing fully audited accounts;
Publishing an annual report; and
Ensuring clear governance structures are in place to ensure the organisation is compliant with relevant legislation and regulations.
We are also acutely aware of the sensitive nature of the personal data in our custody and our obligations under the Data Protection Act.
The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 also provided for IPSA to be given responsibility for determining MPs’ pay and pension in future. These provisions have not yet been signed into law, but we anticipate they will be in due course.