Staffing arrangements of Alun Cairns

Staffing Expenditure is provided to MPs under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’) to meet the cost incurred in the provision of staff to assist with the performance of an MP’s parliamentary functions. The salaries of staff members are paid by IPSA directly to staff members from the Staffing Expenditure budgets. However, MPs are the legal employers of their staff.

IPSA holds copies of all MPs’ staff contracts, which are likely to contain the contracted weekly hours of the staff member. As MPs are the legal employers, they are responsible for the day-to-day arrangements of their staff, including annual leave, time off in lieu or any other leave from work. As such, IPSA does not hold the information that you have requested.

Further, the contractual and working arrangements of staff members are ‘personal data’, as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). It is unlikely to be ‘fair’ or ‘lawful’ to disclose personal data of staff members, especially those in relatively junior positons who would not have a reasonable expectation that details of their working arrangements would be made public. Such information is therefore likely to be exempt from disclosure under the FOIA by virtue of section 40 of the FOIA, which relates to personal data.

You can find out more about personal data and Freedom of Information from the Information Commissioner’s Office, via the following link: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1213/personal-information-section-40-and-regulation-13-foia-and-eir-guidance.pdf.