Staffing

As well as providing funding to pay your staff, we are committed to supporting MPs to be great employers.

We help you provide a range of benefits for your staff, support their health and wellbeing, and train and develop them.

There is a lot to consider about staffing – from how many people you will employ to their working locations, contract types, salary and other factors.

IPSA provide a range of tools to support you and keep things as simple as possible.

Full detailed step-by-step guidance is available on our website, and your payroll officer will happily support you through the processes.

Find out more about payroll and personnel.

See the best practice guide for flexible working arrangements.

MPs are employers. This comes with responsibilities beyond recruiting a staff team.

Members’ HR Service at Parliament can support you with your duties as an employer.

They can be contacted by email at membershr@parliament.uk or by calling 020 7219 2080.

MPs' staff can also speak to HR practitioners directly by calling 0207 219 2617.

Before recruiting staff, you should carefully read the Members of Parliament best practice guide – recruitment and selection.

The Guide provides advice on:

• identifying role requirements and how they support the function of your office

• putting adverts together

• exploring various advertising channels

• making job offers

• completing security and vetting checks

We provide you with a Staffing budget calculated to allow you to employ five full-time staff.

This will vary across different offices depending on the salary MPs pay their team members.

Different constituencies have varying demands that may necessitate larger teams or enable you to perform your role with a smaller team.

The Scheme and our guidance explain all the costs that can be funded from the Staffing budget.

In general, staffing costs include:

• staff salaries (including pension and tax contributions)

• reward and recognition payments

• overtime

• training

• health and wellbeing

• payments for “bought-in” services (including, for example, consultancy costs)

There are some costs we will fund separately to help you run your office smoothly, such as extended absence and reasonable adjustments for staff who require them.

Our website includes some useful tools.

Listed just below this section are the MPs’ staff new starter tool, a job description generator, a calculator to help forecast affordability and optimise budgets, and guidance on all job roles, grades and minimum and maximum salaries.

There is a lot of information to digest when becoming an employer, particularly if this is new terrain.

But we are here to support you, both during your induction and throughout your tenure.

Your payroll officer is available to help and we provide guidance across a range of topics on our website.

See more guidance on payroll and personnel.

To watch our recorded webinars or book a staffing induction session, see our guidance on training and development.

IPSA provides model contracts and job descriptions that MPs need to use for all new staff they employ.

To help with this process, we have created a tool that lets MPs generate employment contracts for their staff.

See step-by-step instructions on how to use the tool.

All MPs' staff employed after 7 May 2010 must have a relevant job description, a contract, and a salary within the appropriate pay range, as set by IPSA.

IPSA has created a tool that allows MPs to generate job descriptions for new staff.

This is based on three types of roles (job families):

• Administrative

• Executive

• Research

MPs can choose roles for their staff at different levels, and several job titles can be used for each role depending on their needs.

There is a list in the job description generator from which you can choose the activities that apply to the role.

Before starting, users should review all the roles and duties available.

If the employee will be undertaking a mixture of two roles, please produce a job description for each.

The 2026-27 yearly calculator currently includes the staffing budget for 2026-27.

The yearly salary calculator allows offices to forecast the staffing budget expenditure.

It is commonly used when the staff modelling (budget) report is unavailable until the new financial year.

Yearly salary calculator

Throughout the year, it can be used alongside the staff modelling report to check whether there are any variations to the original forecast.

MPs and payroll proxies can use the MP team report or MP team report - proxy access to check their current staff’s salaries and enter them into the calculator to conduct an annual overview of the total costs charged to the staffing budget.

Open the yearly salary calculator.

IPSA determines the salary bands for specific roles. Staff must be paid a salary within the appropriate band for the role.

This is paid out of the staffing budget. IPSA reviews pay bands periodically.

Ideally, MPs will advertise all job opportunities for their offices, but it is ultimately up to each MP what kind of process they go through to hire new staff, taking good recruitment practice into account.

They can choose to advertise a salary range that covers all or some of the range for the role, or a specific salary.

Once an appointment has been made, MPs must determine the individual's salary.

The MP should consider:

• the experience and skills required for the role

• the experience of the individual appointed, and

• the skills/salary balance of the overall office

It would not be expected to give a new employee a salary in the upper half of a pay scale who has very limited relevant skills for the advertised role.

ACAS has produced useful guidance on good recruitment practice.

This information should be read in conjunction with the information on , which also includes guidance on parental leave.

Download full details of MPs' staff job descriptions and pay bands for 2025-26.

What is a proxy?

MPs can delegate some IPSA-related responsibilities to one or two trusted staff members, known as proxies.

We know from experience that proxy arrangements work well, and we strongly recommend nominating a proxy.

Frequently an MP's proxy is the office manager, but who performs this role is for the MP to decide.

You will be placing a lot of trust in the proxy to act on your behalf, and you need to consider whether the person you nominate has the right skills for the role.

You must not disclose your personal IPSA online system credentials to anyone, including your proxy.

We will support and train your proxy. They can attend our induction modules and your account manager will work to build a relationship with them.

Proxy options

You have options depending on the responsibilities you wish to delegate, and the level of permissions you provide.

Responsibilities

You can nominate one staff member as your proxy who can complete the following on your behalf:

• Business costs tasks

• Payroll matters (e.g. they can submit claims for other team members and overtime forms)

Or you can have one proxy for business costs and another for payroll.

Permissions

You have the option to provide 'full' permissions or 'limited' permissions.

Full permission allows a proxy to send claims and payroll forms submitted by other staff members to IPSA without your approval.

Limited permission allows proxies to prepare and create claims or payroll forms, but they will require your review and approval.

See more guidance on proxy permissions.