How much money was spent by Patrick Mercer in his winding up budget/expenditure, and on what

Request

  1. How much money was spent by the former MP for Newark Patrick Mercer in his winding up budget/expenditure.

  2. A breakdown of how much was spent on what.


Response

IPSA holds the information that you request.

Under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (the ‘Scheme’), any MP leaving Parliament may make claims to “to meet the cost of completing the outstanding parliamentary functions of a person who ceases to be an MP”. Claims for winding up expenditure may only be claimed for business costs and expenses incurred during the two month period after leaving Parliament. The Scheme allows a maximum of 90 days for submission of claims after a business cost or expense has been incurred. We publish details of claims for business costs and expenses, including all those for winding up expenditure, on our publication website.

The winding up timetable for Patrick Mercer is as follows:

DescriptionDate
Last day as an MP29 April 2014
First day winding up expenditure may be incurred30 April 2014
Last day winding up expenditure may be incurred30 June 2014
90 day claim submission period concludes (the last day that claims for winding up expenditure incurred on 30 June 2014 may be submitted)28 September 2014

As you may be aware, the claims most recently published on our website on 10 July 2014 cover claims processed between February and March 2014.  Therefore, publication of Mr Mercer’s winding up expenditure claims will follow in subsequent publication releases. The dates of future publications are available on our website at the following address: http://www.parliamentarystandards.org.uk/Publicationsdocs/Date%20of%20future%20publications.pdf

Section 22(1) of the FOIA states that information intended for future publication is exempt from release.

We have considered whether the public interest in releasing the information outweighs the application of the exemption. It is our opinion that the public interest is best served by publishing the information as a full list, rather than on an ad hoc basis. In this way a clear and complete set of information is published, avoiding any potential confusion. It is for this reason that the application of the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this stage.

Ref:
F1415-042
Disclosure:
16 July 2014
Categories:
WINDING UP
Exemptions Applied:
Section 22