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Mail on Sunday slams MPs claiming cycling allowance of 20p a mile - we take a close look at the figures

Six MPs claimed a total of less than £150 in 2012/13 - 6,000 times lower than the £880,000 claimed for motoring

The Mail on Sunday has today taken aim at “freewheeling, freeloading” MPs who claim 20 pence a mile when riding their bikes on official business. But road.cc has found that in 2012/13, just six MPs made claims for travelling by bike, totalling less than £150 – compared to almost 40,000 claims for motoring expenses, amounting to nearly £900,000.

According to the Mail on Sunday, MPs are “at the centre of a new expenses row,” even though the politicians are perfectly entitled to claim the allowance, which is in line with HMRC rules and reflect wear and tear and the cost of maintaining a bike such as having it serviced.

Among the MPs to have attracted its ire are transport minister, Robert Goodwill, and shadow transport secretary, Mary Creagh.

Based on figures obtained from the Independent Parliament Standards Authority (IPSA), the Mail on Sunday identified Hugh Bayley, the Labour MP for York Central, as having claimed the highest sums over the past four years - £205 in total.

That should, however, be put into the context of the £98.1 million in total expenses claimed by MPs in 2012/13 alone.

Much of that aggregate figure relates to office and staffing costs, but amounts reimbursed for motoring mileage dwarf those for cycling.

Our research found £146.60 was claimed by six MPs for cycling either by themselves or their staff in 2012/13, with 79 separate claims submitted.

In contrast, there were nearly 40,000 separate claims by MPs for use of their own car personally or by their staff, as well as for parking. The total? More than £880,000.

In the case of Oxford East Labour MP Andrew Smith, we discovered that the amount he claimed last year for cycling was £30.60, compared to motoring expenses of £2,469.

The largest amount claimed for a single cycling trip during the year was £4.56 by Leicester East MP, Liz Kendall.

Mr Goodwill, who made just one cycling-related claim last year, told the Mail on Sunday: “I just put in a few claims to demonstrate that I use my bicycle for work. I actually made ten journeys last Thursday for votes between the Department for Transport offices and Parliament and I didn’t claim for those.”

The amount he claimed for that trip in 2012/13? 80 pence.

Ms Creagh made two claims during the same year, for a total of £1.80. She declined to speak to the newspaper.

The suggestion from the Mail on Sunday seems to be that the MPs claiming expenses are somehow on the fiddle, although given the amounts involved some might wonder whether the return justifies the effort.

And while Liam Fox’s claim of 3 pence in motoring mileage for a 100-metre trip attracted derision last year, claims for motoring expenses don’t seem to be attracting quite the same scrutiny, despite the amount of money involved being 6,000 times higher.

Mr Bayley explained to the Mail on Sunday why he claimed. “I use it to maintain my bicycles and I’ve spent a lot more than £200,” he said.

“I have two bicycles, one in my constituency and the other in London. It costs about £60 a year to put each through an annual maintenance check.”

One MP, the Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb who represents North Norfolk, claimed a total of £12.50 for bicycle use over the last four years, but told the Mail on Sunday he no longer did so.

“I concluded, I’ve got a bike, it’s not costing me anything so I just don’t claim any more,” he explained.

“I certainly think we should be encouraging MPs to use the cheapest mode of transport but I have myself chosen to do it without claiming now.”

Last December, former cycling minister Norman Baker, now at the Home Office, tried to decline the use of a ministerial car, saying he would rather use a “ministerial bicycle.”But civil servants told him it would be an “unacceptable burden” on the taxpayer, despite the department spending £136,000 a year on ministerial cars.

Before the 2010 General Election, then leader of the opposition David Cameron pledged to reduce the bill for ministerial cars by £6 million if he became prime minister.

Mr Goodwill, who was shadow transport minister at the time, said: “Unless they have a good reason – such as carrying lots of ministerial boxes or security – we will expect Tory Ministers to consider using bicycles to get around Westminster and Whitehall.

“Ministers can always put their paperwork in a backpack.”

 

Note: We looked at data from IPSA for 2012/13 relating to expenses claimed for use of own car or bicycle by MPs or their staff, as well as data for car parking. Some expenses related to cycling or motoring may fall under other headings, but those are the main ones.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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42 comments

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jollygoodvelo | 10 years ago
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Agree with most of the above - you're allowed to claim mileage allowance to cover maintenance. I'd far rather they claimed bike allowance than car allowance.

Wonder if the smaller claims are simply made so that there's an audit trail "proving" that a cycle to work bike had indeed been used for cycling to work?

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Simmo72 | 10 years ago
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I think MP's should be entitled to claim for underwear wear. It must be a huge financial burden; all that talking out of their arse must place a huge strain on these garments.

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Joelsim | 10 years ago
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OK. 3 mile journey to a meeting.

Taxi - £12?
Tube - £3.20
Bike - 60p
Ministerial car - £100s

Which would that stupid rag of a newspaper prefer the MP charged? There is wear & tear on a bike.

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zanf replied to Scoob_84 | 10 years ago
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Scoob_84 wrote:

WOW @ the articles comment section

NEVER read the comments. Perfect way to ensure brain damage.

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parksey replied to zanf | 10 years ago
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zanf wrote:
Scoob_84 wrote:

WOW @ the articles comment section

NEVER read the comments. Perfect way to ensure brain damage.

They just reaffirm my view that there are a *lot* of morons in this world...

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notfastenough replied to joemmo | 10 years ago
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joemmo wrote:

just in the interest of political balance the Mirror also carried this story.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mps-claim-expenses-cycling-work-324...

Of which the best one is this:

"they don't cycle fast enough to work up a sweat so how can they claim the same as someone with a car"

Eh?! Honestly, I ask you...  102

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Paul M replied to Scoob_84 | 10 years ago
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Scoob_84 wrote:

WOW @ the articles comment section

I'm not going to sink to giving the Volkischer Beobachter its clickbait so I won't see the comments but I can guess.

However it is not just the Mail carrying this story - it was in the Sunday Mirror as well. the relatively few comments that had been left by yesterday morning when I was looking at the article online suggested that readers were saying "£146? So what is your point?" I was tempted to comment on journalists' legendary propensity for dodgy expense claims but frankly I have better things to do with my time.

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oozaveared | 10 years ago
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Cycling is cheap but it isn't free either. HMRC let's you claim over 40p a mile for car journeys. That's not just for fuel but is supposed to represent the actual cost of driving. Depreciation, servicing, consumables etc.

HMRC needs a figure like that for cycling.

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pakennedy replied to harrybav | 10 years ago
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No, idiocy is what I do, trolling them with common sense to see if I can get banned again!

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pakennedy | 10 years ago
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OI. Stop it you lot. I'm playing with the commentors and I keep getting upvoted!

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srchar replied to oozaveared | 10 years ago
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I agree with Paul M. I claim 20p per mile for a 10 mile each-way commute, for a total of about eighty quid a month. It's enough to cover wear and tear on parts, plus sundries like chain lube, but I do my own spannering and doubt it would cover the weekly drivetrain degrease/re-lube lube that is required during winter, were I to rely on a shop.

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snowbusiness replied to oozaveared | 10 years ago
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HMRC do have a cycle allowance, and it's 20p a mile tax-free and for an unlimited number of miles and has been for many years.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/travel.htm

It's got nothing to do with civil servants or MP's either, any employee of any company using their own bike for work journeys (not to get to work) can and should be able to claim.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/mileage/employee-factsheet.pdf

This was just typical Daily Mail garbage.

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