Copy of expenses claimed by Eric Illsley MP in 2010

Request

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act to request copies of the receipts that support the following items of expenses paid to Eric Illsley MP in the past year.

If you are unable to provide copies I would ask for the information contained in each receipt.

  • General Admin Landline Hire      15/07/2010         £72.10

  • General Admin Landline Hire      03/08/2010         £20.32

  • General Admin Other 28/07/2010             £202.06

  • General Admin Payment Telephone/Mobile       07/05/2010         £38.30

  • General Admin Payment Telephone/Mobile       07/06/2010         £47.31

  • General Admin Payment Telephone/Mobile       07/07/2010         £45.00

  • General Admin Photocopier Hire 26/05/2010      £1,010.50

  • General Admin Stationery Purchase        28/07/2010         £14.45

  • General Admin Website - Hosting            14/06/2010         £32.95


Response

IPSA will not, as a matter of course, publish images of receipts or invoices supporting claims. We believe that the information we publish proactively on IPSA’s Publication website provides a significant amount of detail and gives a clear picture of what MPs are claiming for and affords reassurance that claims are both appropriate for MPs to carry out their parliamentary functions and in accordance with the rules set out in the MPs’ Expenses Scheme.

The following tables at Annex A provide the information released on IPSA’s publication website relating to these claims, as well as all additional information contained on each invoice. Please note that we have withheld order numbers, lease number, sales order numbers, account numbers, bill numbers, invoice numbers, sort codes, VAT invoice number, and credit card details. We have withheld this information under Section 31(1)(a) (Law enforcement) of the FOI Act. This section of the Act states that information is exempt if its disclosure under the FOI Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the prevention (or detection) or crime.

After considering the nature of the withheld information it is our opinion that were a disclosure to be made into the public domain it is probable that this information could be traced back to sensitive personal or commercial information which could be used for criminal activity. Although we recognise the public interest in transparency surrounding the publishing of invoice information there is also a strong public interest in ensuring that as an organisation we are able to protect our service users from the threat of being subjected to criminal activity, which is achieved through our capacity to withhold certain information from disclosure. It is for this reason that we have decided that the application of the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

We have also withheld information regarding the home address of Mr Eric Illsley MP,  mobile telephone number, personal email address, and details of calls made under section 40 (personal information) of the FOI Act as the information constitutes third party data. Section 40(2) provides that personal data about third parties is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3) is satisfied. (Please see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents). Under the FOI Act disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle contained in the Data Protection Act (DPA), where it would be unfair to those persons or is confidential.

Annex A

View the tables containing the information released on IPSA’s publication website relating to these claims, as well as all additional information contained on each invoice.

Ref:
FOI2011-014
Disclosure:
10 February 2011
Categories:
GENERAL EXPENSES ENQUIRYCOPIES OF RECEIPTS/INVOICES
Exemptions Applied:
Section 31