MSPs' Expenses and Expenditure
The Allowances Scheme makes provision for the payment of allowances to enable Members to carry out their parliamentary duties and for information regarding the allowances payable under the scheme to be published. For the period up to 2005-2006, this information was included in the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) Annual Report. For the period from 2005-2006, it is available in the following two publications:
Individual MSP spreadsheets
Under the Scotland Act 1998, it is for the Scottish Parliament to determine the levels of, and arrangements for, Members’ allowances. There have been several versions of the Members’ Allowances Scheme since the Parliament came into being; the latest came into effect on 1
October
2008, having been approved by Parliament on 12 June 2008.
Expenses
rates are up-rated annually, having regard to such indices as the SPCB considers appropriate. Rates constitute maximum amounts a Member may claim rather than amounts actually claimed; the amounts actually claimed by Members can be found by Searching the Database. Data has been provided for all four quarters of the 2005-06 financial year.
Data protection is sue s arise for MSPs where their staff members are paid directly from their allowances – these salaries cannot be disclosed for data protection reasons and therefore are not included in the Database. Most parties pool some costs to which they are entitled under the Members’ Support Allowance, in order to employ shared staff. For example, the Scottish Socialist Party employs its entire staff on a pooled basis while the Scottish Green Party meets most of its staff costs from pooled resources. This means that the data does not provide a direct comparison of MSPs’ total expenditure. Further information may be found in both the SPICe User Guide and in SPICe Briefing Parliamentary Pay and Allowances.
Previous SPICe briefings on Allowances
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Current Members
MSP Expenses Scheme 
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