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Parliamentary Costs and Sitting Days

Answer

Precise comparisons between the cost of the European Parliament and the Houses of Parliament are difficult. The requested information is set out below. Unlike previous years' Answers to similar Questions, which were given on a cash basis, the House of Commons and House of Lords have provided data relating to costs on a resource basis, consistent with their resource accounts. The European Parliament has not adopted resource accounting and budgeting and all its cost figures have been presented on a cash basis. Per Capita Cost Per Member £'000s 2004–05 Unaudited Provisional Figures House of Commons 1 2 489 House of Lords 2 131 Figures for 2000–01 to 2003–04 for the House of Commons and House of Lords can be found in the relevant year's resource accounts 3 4. European Parliament figures are available on its website5. Number of Sitting Days Sitting Days Parliamentary Year 2003–04 Parliamentary Year 2004–05 Calendar Year 2004 2004–05 Financial Year European Parliament6 7 173 161 160 163 House of Commons 157 65 160 151 House of Lords 157 63 160 152 Annual Costs European Parliament The European Parliament outturn figures for calendar years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and budget figures for 2004 and 2005 can be found on the European Parliament website5. House of Commons £ millions 2004–05 Provisional Unaudited Outturn Members' salaries, pensions travel and allowances 132.8 Salaries and pensions for administrative staff 55.5 Accommodation costs 2 91.0 Other administration costs 43.0 Total 322.3 Details of previous years expenditure by the House of Commons can be found in the Members and administration resource accounts 3 . House of Lords £ millions 2004–05 Provisional Unaudited Outturn Members' expenses 14.3 House of Lords staff costs 15.5 Accommodation costs 2 43.8 Other administration costs 16.7 Total 90.3 Details of previous years' expenditure by the House of Lords can be found in its resource accounts4. 1The figures are calculated on the assumption that there are 659 Members. 2From 2003–04 onwards the figures are based on the capital charge reducing from 6 per cent to 3.5 per cent. 3House of Commons resource accounts can be found on its website (HC419, HC420, HC67, HC68, HC1239, HC1240) at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmhocpap.htm#resource. 4 House of Lords resource accounts can be found on its website (HL23, HL44, HL11, HL197) at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldres.htm. 5 European Parliament budget information and number of Members can be found on its website atwww.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/budget/www/index-en.htmandwwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep6/owwp–meps2.repartition?ilR=EN&iorig=home. 6 2004, being an election year, had fewer meeting days than a normal year. 7 Includes plenary sessions as well as part-plenaries, committee days, political group days in Brussels and constituency days.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

500; 673 c46-8WA

Session

2005-06

Subjects

House of Lords European Parliament European Parliament members Members Peers Per capita costs

Contains statistics

Yes