Internal documentation relating to MPs renting offices from constituency parties
Request
Access to and copies of all documents, including emails, meeting reports, minutes, emails and official communications relating to consideration of the issue of MPs renting accommodation from their constituency parties and the possible abuse of this practice, from the establishment of IPSA until the introduction of a requirement for members to provide a valuation of the market rate for the contract prepared by a valuer regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Response
We have conducted a thorough search of our electronic records and hardcopy files relating to the information that you have requested. The information that we hold is summarised as follows and is attached to this letter:
Annex 1 – Policy note on administrative and office expenditure (6 November 2009), page 1;
Annex 2 – IPSA’s consultation on the first edition of the MPs’ Expenses Scheme (January 2010), page 54;
Annex 3 – IPSA Board Workshop summary sheet (26 February 2010), pages 2 & 3;
Annex 4 – IPSA Board paper, summarising decisions on expenses scheme (4 March 2010), pages 5 & 6; and
Annex 5 – The First Edition of the MPs’ Expenses Scheme (29 March 2010), page 101
Where any of the information that we hold makes reference to junior members of staff, we have redacted the names of those individuals. In IPSA’s view, that information is exempt under section 40 (personal information) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as it constitutes personal 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. Under the FOI Act disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle (Principle 1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), where it would be unfair to those persons or is confidential. For further information, please visit the following website: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents.
Is this page helpful?
- Ref:
- FOI2012-A039
- Disclosure:
- 23 May 2012
- Categories:
- MPs' OFFICE COSTS
- Exemptions Applied:
- Section 40