Here is the breakdown of spending by Andrew Gwynne MP for the most recent period published by the House of Commons authorities (2006-2007 financial year).  Allowance spend for the 2007-2008 financial year will be published by the House authorities in October 2008.

The Parliamentary allowances are basically annual budgets available to all Members of Parliament to allow them to operate a fully staffed office in their constituencies or in London, or both, to allow them to fulfil their Parliamentary duties.

All Members of Parliament can spend up to the annually agreed budget limits. In the financial year 2006/2007 the expenditure for my office was as follows:

Staffing Allowance

Amount spent: £87,463 Budget limit: £87,276

This budget can only be used to pay the wages of members of staff. I employ 3 members of staff in my constituency office, and 1 member of staff in my House of Commons office.

A small amount was transferred from my 2005/2006 under-spend to cover a small staffing budget deficit, with permission from the House of Commons Department of Finance and Administration.

In addition £473 was incurred for staff travel from the constituency to London.

Incidental Expenses Provision Alowance

Amount spent: £28,597 Budget limit: £20,440

The Incidental Expenses Provision provides funding for Members of Parliament to rent or purchase an office in their constituency; pay for equipment for that office; and to pay the running costs of that office, which includes electricity, heating and Local Authority rates.

I rent an office, and an annex interview/surgery room, from Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council in Denton Town Hall.

(Note: The reason that the expenditure exceeds the budget limit is because it was agreed that in setting up my office after the 2005 General Election, I could transfer a proportion of the under-spend from my 2005/2006 Incidental Expenses budget to my 2006/2007 budget, in order to purchase new office equipment.)

Postage and Stationery

Amount spent: £10,482

This expenditure relates to the purchase of House of Commons crested stationery and postage paid envelopes for use in casework and letters to constituents. The amount spent is indicative of the quantity of casework that was handled my office in 2006/2007.

Additional Costs Allowance

Amount spent: £21,607 Budget limit: £22,110

ACA allows Members of Parliament to stay in London during the week, when Parliament is sitting, and can be used to pay for hotels, or to purchase or rent a flat.

Other allowances

Car expenditure: £1,602

Rail expenditure: £12,460

Flights expenditure: £175

Other travel expenditure: £85

These allowances available to all Members of Parliament are to allow travel between an MP’s constituency and London. I use the train each week to travel down to London and to come home to the constituency in order to carry out surgeries, meetings, and other constituency functions.

I do not drive down to London, and the budget relating to car travel is for constituency business only, such as travelling between the 7 different advice bureaux locations and to travel to meetings.

In London I only use public transport and the ‘other’ heading relates to the London Underground. On one occasion when the trains were cancelled due to emergency engineering, I flew.

Andrew Gwynne MP said:

"I am pleased that in the interests of open government, something that I frequently campaign for, the expenses of individual Members of Parliament can be scrutinised by the public.

It is often portrayed that Parliamentary allowances are like additional perks, but the reality is that they are budgets to allow us to do our jobs properly and to ensure there is a properly functioning office in the constituency.

The allowances can only be spent on things that relate to that budget heading, and I hope that my expenditure break-down shows that in Denton and Reddish I have ensured, as I always promised to do, that there is a local office to deal proactively with my constituents concerns and issues.

Last year alone the constituency office staff dealt with over 2,000 new individual cases on top of on-going cases from the year before."