Not paid expense claims

IPSA regularly publishes details of all MPs’ expense claims, both paid and not paid, on its website. Every two months IPSA publishes claims processed up to three months previously. To date, we have published details of expense claims processed up to May 2011 and on 3 November we will be publishing details of expense claims made in June and July this year. If you search the database you will find details of claims processed for all MPs, including claims that have not been paid, during this period. This information is, therefore, exempt under section 21 of the FOIA (information accessible to the applicant by other means). We have taken the view that claims in the period from June 2011 to the present are exempt under section 22(1) of the FOIA (Information intended for future publication).

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 at set dates, rather than on an ad hoc basis, as this way a clear and complete set of information is published, which should also avoid causing confusion. It is for these stated reasons that the application of the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure.