EACH year county MPs claim expenses to cover the costs necessary for an MP to perform their parliamentary functions.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority regulates MPs’ business costs and expenses and publish the data regularly.

So how do our two Conservative county MPs’ expenses compare for the last financial year, 2017/18?

Bill Wiggin is MP for North Herefordshire and Jesse Norman is MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire.

For Mr Wiggin his office costs were £15,489.39, which included constituency office rent of £2,500 and stationery purchases of £4,872.57. Mr Wiggin’s office is at 8 Corn Square in Leominster.

Mr Norman’s office costs were £22,997.82. This includes a constituency office rent of £12,132.32, which includes a service charge. His stationery costs were £1,917.25. His office is at Penn House in Broad Street, Hereford.

Mr Wiggin claimed council tax of £2,015.66 while Mr Norman did not claim council tax.

Mr Wiggin claimed mileage of £4,714.73 for travel in his own car and also £85 for two taxis from Gloucester railway station to his home near Ross-on-Wye.

He also claimed £4,145.98 for staff travel. This included £367 for a hotel in the London area for MP staff on December 15 and £265 for a hotel in the London area for MP staff on December 13.

Mr Norman did not claim any travel expenses back for himself but he claimed £349.55 for staff travel.

For 2017/18 Mr Wiggin’s staffing costs currently show as £74 to pay expenses to volunteers.

Mr Norman’s staffing expenses currently show as £15,786.25, which is mainly for PA/secretarial services in his constituency office. Neither currently includes the payroll for permanent staff. The payroll data for 2017 to 2018 will be released in IPSA’s annual report in November and will then be added on to the expenses data they publish quarterly.

MPs have a staffing budget which they manage in accordance with the Scheme of MPs’ Business Costs and Expenses.

IPSA spends £100-£110m on MPs’ business costs and expenses. About £80million is for MPs’ staff salaries. Much of the rest is used for running constituency offices and for travel in the constituency and between the constituency and London. It pays about £50million a year for MPs’ salaries, national insurance and pension contributions.