Members' Expenses - Constituency Office Expenses 2020-2021

Figures for April 2020 - March 2020

¹ Constituency Office Expenses (COE) 2019 – 2020

As its name suggests, COE is generally used to allow a Member to provide a service to constituents through a constituency office. Items that can be claimed from COE include office rent and rates, office utilities (including heating and lighting and telephones), office cleaning, office equipment, office furniture and office consumables (excluding the cost of photocopiers, fax machines cameras, televisions, radios and computer equipment), office signage and insurance. COE cannot be claimed without valid proof of the actual expenses incurred.

From 1 April 2020 the amount of COE available is £7,000 annum (pro rata) for Constituency Office Operating Expenses (which now includes mobile phones), £8,500 per annum (pro rata) for rent and £4,000 per mandate for Constituency Office Establishment Expenses (which also includes costs of refurbishing or maintaining an existing office).   Rates may be recovered in full.  However, where a lease agreement is entered into and the rental payments for a year are in excess of the maximum amount of rent allowable, a limit is applied.

The tax date of an invoice determines the financial year in which the expense may be claimed, irrespective of period covered by the invoice.

In the detailed analysis of COE, it should be noted that where a Member’s name is given as the “Supplier” the payment was made as a reimbursement to the Member for admissible expenditure incurred. If a Member shares an office with another Member all costs must be split equally and the Member may only recover expenses which relate to that Member.  However, one Member may pay the whole invoice and receive the reimbursement and the cost will be spilt when the claim is processed, therefore recording the name of one Member as a supplier in the record of another Member.

Members are permitted to use COE to purchase pre-paid envelopes, stationery, envelopes, toners, general office supplies, small office equipment etc. for use in their constituency offices and where these items have been purchased from the central Assembly Office Resources department the supplier will be “NI Assembly”.

Up to 27 August 2020, Sundry Constituency Office Operating Expenses of up to £100 per month could be claimed.  This provision was removed from that date.  Under the original 2016 Determination Members were not required to maintain records of these payments.  Receipts however, could be provided, in which case reimbursement was made directly to the Member or to a member of support staff, where the support staff had incurred the expenditure on behalf of the Member.  In the absence of receipts the reimbursement was processed through payroll and the usual deductions for tax and national insurance were made.  Payments made through payroll are be recorded as ‘Taxable Sundry Expenses’.  In general, expenses were those assorted, miscellaneous, small, varied or infrequent operating costs incurred in running an office. In all cases, the Member had to sign a declaration stating that the expenditure was incurred in accordance with the requirements of the Determination.