MPs donating to charity

Request

Shall we be allowed to know which Mps have been helped to give the money to charity?


Response

If an MP wishes to make a donation to charity out of their salary, then that is a matter for them. There are, of course, many different ways of donating to charity, and we would not necessarily know if an MP was making donations to charity once they have received their salary.

IPSA can make arrangements for payroll giving through the Charities Aid Foundation’s Give-As-You-Earn programme. Should an MP be interested, they need to complete the Foundation’s ‘Donor Instruction Form’ form on our website. This needs to be signed then posted or emailed to IPSA’s address. Any donations made under this programme will be taken from an MP’s pay before tax but after National Insurance.

As at the date of responding, there are 15 MPs who have utilised the Give-As-You-Earn programme. As there are many different ways of donating to charity, this figure does not necessarily reflect the total number of MPs who donate to charity.

Whether or not individual MPs choose to donate through the payroll giving programme is their personal information. Section 40(2) pf the FOIA provides that personal information 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. As such, we are withholding the individual names of those 15 MPs who have utilised the Give-As-You-Earn programme.

Ref:
CAS-24893
Disclosure:
16 August 2015
Categories:
MPs' PAY AND PENSIONS
Exemptions Applied:
Section 40