Top 10 expense claimants

IPSA holds the information that you request.

As you may be aware, all claims by MPs for business costs and expenses, claimed under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’) are published on our website.

The following instructions may assist you in locating the information:

1. Select ‘Data Downloads’ via the menu bar at the top of the page.

2. Select a financial year. This will open a spreadsheet containing all claims made by every MP in that financial year.

The FOIA states that information that is accessible by other means is not subject to release. Therefore, as the information you have requested is already available on our website, it is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the FOIA (information accessible to applicant by other means).

For your reference, the next publication date is 14 May 2015, which will cover those claims processed by IPSA during December 2014 and January 2015. Claims subsequently processed by IPSA will follow in future publications.

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 a full list rather than on an ad hoc basis, as 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.