Senators’ travel expenses from the upper house budget amounted to around 2.7 million euros in the first nine months of 2025, which is the second highest value in the ten years since the data was available. It should be noted that there are two non-working months during this period – January and August – in which no regular parliamentary activity takes place.
According to figures compiled by Europa Press, the Senate has currently reduced the travel costs of its MPs by 7% compared to last year, although this data places it second in the historical ranking due to increasing parliamentary activity.
And the House of Lords recently detailed the data for the third quarter of 2025, which amounts to 735,356.92 euros. These expenses are spread across parliamentary, political and official travel by senators and also include administration, cancellation and ticket exchange costs, as well as tickets issued until used.
The Senate covers the senators’ travel expenses by public transport (plane, train, bus or ship) to carry out their parliamentary activities, to carry out political, sectoral or institutional representative activities and for business trips on behalf of the Senate.
The Senate also provides parliamentarians with a “taxi card” with an annual credit of a maximum of 3,000 euros, which is valid for their trips within the Community of Madrid. If you use your own car, you pay 0.25 euros per kilometer and, if applicable, the amount of motorway tolls.
WITH TWO months off work
It should be recalled that during this period there were two non-working months due to vacation periods, namely January and August, during which normal parliamentary activity did not take place.
Compared to the same period in other years, total travel spending in the first nine months of 2024 was 2,921,267.36 euros, while spending in 2023 was 1,826,444.5 euros and in 2022 was 2,069,327.02 euros.
In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and in-person operations in the Upper House were almost completely stopped, expenditure amounted to 1,000,570.44 euros. In 2021, when there were still certain restrictions, the costs amounted to 1,495,368.52 euros.
In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, the senators’ travel expenses amounted to 1,362,853.74 euros in three quarters. In 2018 (2,343,775.4 euros), 2017 (2,106,744.77 euros), 2016 (1,305,659.19 euros) and 2015 (2,127,007.83 euros), this year’s 2.7 million limit was never exceeded.
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