Rejected petition Remove the taxpayer's subsidy for MPs House's of Parliament food and drink.

I want the government to remove the taxpayer's subsidy for MPs and their guests House's of Parliament food and drink.

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MPs earn an average salary of £80k per year, plus expenses. Earlier this week they voted against providing free meals to the poorest children in our society. The people who can afford to eat and enjoy themselves are subsidised by the taxpayers, whilst the poorest children aren't supported. This needs to change! I don't pay my tax so that an MP on a huge salary can have their meals subsidised, I pay it so that those who need it are supported. This is not the case at the moment.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

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We have published the following petition, which you might like to sign:

Increase food and drink prices for MPs in House of Commons catering venues: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/555565

The House of Commons Catering service does not provide a subsidised service in the commercial sense of the word. Some venues make a profit, while in other venues the cost of providing the service does exceed the income received in sales due to the irregular hours and unpredictability of parliamentary business. The House of Commons publishes details of the cost of House of Commons catering services: https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/transparency-publications/hoc-transparency-publications/catering-services/transparency-reporting-catering-services/

Customers of the House of Commons Catering Services include some of the 650 MPs but also around 14,500 other pass-holders, many of whom are staff on lower wages that work irregular hours. In addition, members of the public and non pass holding visitors to Parliament also have access to these services. The irregular hours and the unpredictability of Parliamentary business contribute to increasing the net cost of providing a catering service. To offset this many of the restaurants, dining room facilities and their staff, are used to cater for private events at times when they are not required by the House. This is one of a number of measures used to reduce costs.

The UK Government and Parliament aren't responsible for setting MPs' pay or expenses. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is responsible for deciding on MPs' expenses and pay. IPSA is independent of both Parliament and Government.

You can find out more about IPSA here: https://www.theipsa.org.uk/about-us/

MPs may claim for the cost of purchasing food and non-alcoholic drinks where they have stayed overnight outside the London Area and their constituency. This is limited to £25 for each night they have stayed, but the claims can be for purchases made during the day.

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