Member of Parliament representatives

I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request.

Some of the information you have requested is subject to a refusal notice under FOIA s.21 as it is already available on our website, and FOIA s.22(1) as it is intended for future publication by IPSA as part of our routine publication schedule. FOIA s.22(1) is a qualified exemption and requires us to consider the public interest.

As IPSA will be publishing a response to this and other FOI requests on its website by the end of November 2022, we find that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this time.

Which aspects of an MP's role could not be carried out by the MP representative?

Information concerning which aspects of an MP’s role could not be carried out by the MP Representative has been published on our website in response to previous FOI requests:

CAS-145965 (22 July 2019)

CAS-147060 (4 September 2019)

Additional information relevant to your request will be published on our Freedom of Information Disclosure Log, Freedom of information responses by the end of November 2022.

The international benchmarking process that led to the salary band for the role

Two documents relevant to your request are provided as attachments.

The salary band for the role was based on the salary band for MPs adjusted pro rata to reflect those aspects of an MP’s role which a representative may not carry out. Constitutionally no one can take on the full roles and responsibilities of a Member of Parliament, who is an officeholder elected by the general public, for example, elected MPs are able to attend the Chamber, engage in debates, ask oral questions of Ministers and vote in Parliament. It is up to Parliament to decide if the law should be changed so that an unelected person can undertake these duties when an MP can’t be there.

To determine a suitable salary band, we used an international process of job evaluation, which takes into consideration the skills, tasks, autonomy, managerial responsibility and size of the budget they would be responsible for. In doing this, we also referred to Professor Sarah Childs, “The Good Parliament” (July 2016)

Advice and Assistance

We have also published details on our website that specify how IPSA helps MPs who are absent for a prolonged period of time.

For further information regarding the rules for staff going on leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental), please follow this link.

If you have not already done so, you may find the Houses of Parliament Gender and Equality Report, (March 2022), Gender Sensitive Parliament and related evidence, referred to in your request, ‘Women and Equalities Committee. Oral evidence: Gender-sensitive Parliament’, HC 131 (Wednesday 15 September 2021) of interest.