Remuneration of IPSA's board

Request

  • The salaries and remuneration package for each member of  IPSA’s Board and management team for each of the past 3 financial years;

  • The pensions’ contributions made on each of these salary and remuneration packages for each of the past 3 financial years;

  • How many days over the last financial year each member of the management team worked from home (by post holder).


Response

In responding, we have interpreted your request for information relating to the ‘management team’ as for information pertaining to IPSA’s Chief Executive and Directors. Salaries paid to senior members of IPSA’s staff are published on our website, and can be found at the following address: http://parliamentarystandards.org.uk/transparency/Pages/IPSA-facts-and-figures.aspx

Details relating to the remuneration of all Board members and directors are also published each year in IPSA’s annual report and accounts. These can also be found on our website, by following this link. Remuneration for the Chair and Board of IPSA is not pensionable.

The pension arrangements of senior members of staff can be found within the Annual Report and Accounts. The current pension contribution rates for the Civil Service Pension Scheme can be found on the Scheme’s website at the following address: http://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/contribution-rates/.

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).

IPSA’s annual report and accounts for the 2014-15 financial year is currently being compiled and will be published in the autumn. 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 sticking to our planned publication schedule, 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.

We do not believe that the legitimate public interest in disclosing the exact personal pension contributions outweighs the reasonable expectation of the individual to privacy, given that we already publish details of pensions, on an annualised basis. As such, details of personal pension contributions are exempt from release under section 40 of the FOIA (personal information).

Section 40(2) provides that personal data 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. For further information, you may wish to visit the UK Legislation website.

Ref:
CAS-25955
Disclosure:
10 September 2015
Categories:
IPSA - BOARD
Exemptions Applied:
Section 21