Letter to MPs, 9 February 2023 (MPs’ Pay for 2023-24)

Dear Member of Parliament,

I write to confirm MPs’ pay for the coming year.

As you will know, IPSA has a legal duty to set MPs’ pay, independently of Parliament and government. Our statutory duty is to ensure that MPs are properly remunerated for the responsibility they have in our democracy, whilst also being fair to taxpayers.

IPSA’s Board has decided that the annual adjustment to MPs’ basic pay for 2023-24 will be the same as the average increase in pay for public sector employees last year. This will result in an increase of 2.9 per cent, bringing the overall salary from £84,144 to £86,584 from 1 April 2023.

This follows the decision by IPSA in 2015 to adjust MPs’ pay at the same rate as actual changes in public sector earnings for the previous year, as published by the Office of National Statistics.

Tracking public sector pay in this way is used elsewhere. We have also compared pay in Westminster with that for MPs in other G7 economies.

This approach, following pay rises across the public sector last year, means that we avoid the situation where MPs’ pay falls behind and requires a more significant adjustment in the future to catch up, as happened in 2015.

We do not believe that serving as an MP should be the preserve of those wealthy enough to fund it themselves. It is important for our democracy that individuals from any background should see representing their communities in Parliament as a possibility.

Yours sincerely

Richard Lloyd

IPSA Chair