Request for information about MPs' staffing

I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request, but it is subject to a Refusal Notice under sections 22 and 40 of the FOIA.

I must first explain why this response appears to contradict the response to CAS-133653.

You quote the wording of the request above, and the information provided was shown by political party, with job families and a split by gender.

A review of the processing of the request showed that data from different sources had undergone analysis to create the information which was released.

This information could not be provided from one source and the fact that analysis was necessary to provide the information should have been explained.

According to the Information Commissioner’s Guidance Determining whether information is held the information for this request was “created” and not held under the FOIA.

We have been reviewing previous FOI requests and on the subject of MPs’ staff we found a request from 2015 (CAS-21860), which was refused under sections 22 and 40 of the FOIA and on which basis we refuse your request.

Section 22(1) – future publication

This exemption applies because some of the information you have requested is intended for future publication by IPSA as part of our annual publication. Section B of our Publication Policy sets out what we publish,

12. The following information concerning MPs’ staff members on the IPSA payroll: a) Their job title b) Whether they are full time or part time c) When they vacated their post (where applicable) d) For connected parties only, the salary received (within a £5,000 bracket) e) For connected parties only, the name of the staff member

Section 22(1) is a qualified exemption and requires us to consider the public interest. IPSA recognises how the publication of this information enables the public to understand more the work of MPs and staff management. There is extensive work involved to prepare the MPs’ staffing information, as part of IPSA’s wider publication.

In light of this fact, we find that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this time.

Sections 40(2) and 40(3A)(a) – personal data

This exemption applies to information which IPSA considers to be personal data within the meaning of Article 4(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (UK GDPR) which states:

"personal data" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ("data subject"); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to … one or more factors specific to the physical …cultural or social identity of that natural person.

IPSA considered that the gender of an MP’s member of staff is personal data within this definition. We then considered whether disclosure of this personal data would breach any of the Principles relating to the processing of personal data in the UK GDPR.

The relevant principle falls at Article 5(1)(a):

Personal data shall be:

a. Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject

As the information is about gender, we also considered Article 9 of the UK GDPR which deals with the processing of special category data, which includes, data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

As IPSA was unable to find a lawful basis on which it could rely, within Article 6 of the UK GDPR, we therefore find that the information is exempt under section 40.

Our response to request CAS-21860 included the overall total of male and female staff employed by MPs and we can provide this level of information as of the end of July 2021. At this time there were 568 MPs employing: 2,084 staff who identified as female and 1,787 staff who identified as male.