Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

MSP expenses: Claims rise to more than £12.5million

Post Thumbnail

MSPs’ expenses rose to more than £12.5 million last year, up by around a quarter of a million pounds on 2012-13, according to new figures.

The total claimed in 2013-14 was £12,523,959, an increase of £262,140 on the figure for the previous year.

A Scottish Parliament spokeswoman said: “The 2.14% rise in Members’ expenses last year broadly reflects the effect of inflation on office costs and on staff salaries.”

Costs for staff salaries, pensions and national insurance contributions rose from £8,915,847 in 2012-13 to £9,080,336 in 2013-14.

This included winding up costs for members’ staff of £200,697, up from £25,940 in 2012-13.

Stationary and postage costs increased by 10.2% over the year, from £486,450 in 2012-13 to £536,101 in 2013-14.

Party leaders’ allowances fell by almost a third (31.4%) over the period, from £26,184 in 2012-13 to £17,957.

The rise in the cost of winding up provision for 2013-14 was largely due to the deaths of MSPs Brian Adam, Helen Eadie and David McLetchie, and the resignation of Bill Walker following his conviction on charges of domestic abuse.

Expenditure on childcare vouchers over the period was £22,439 and security related and disability provision expenditure was £21,703.

First Minister Alex Salmond claimed a total of £9,691, including expenses for travel, printing, stationary, mobile phone and newspaper subscriptions.

Labour leader Johann Lamont spent £19,697 on bills for taxi and rail travel, hotels in Edinburgh and office costs.

Conservative leader Ruth Davidson claimed back £17,184 of travel, office and accommodation costs, while Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie’s expenses were £16,394, the majority of which were for travel costs.