Copies of receipts for specified paid claims
Request
Could I request copies of the receipts (and/or other supporting documents) for these expenses claims which were all paid in 2014/15 please?
MP: Jim Dowd Amount: £19,500 Date: 01/04/2014 Type: Office costs (const office rent) No.: 358099
MP: Priti Patel Amount: £2,874 Date: 26/11/2014 Type: Office costs (web site hosting) No.: 395531
MP: Douglas Carswell Amount: £2,574.48 Date: 24/04/2014 Type: Office costs (advertising) No.: 353187
MP: Gerald Kaufman Amount: £538.26 Date: 25/04/2014 Type: Travel (car hire) No.: 365978
MP: Nigel Evans Amount: £213.38 Date: 25/11/2014 Type: Travel (car hire) No.: 400223
MP: Michael Moore Amount: £189 Date: 31/10/2014 Type: Office costs (const office cleaning) No.: 390712
Response
IPSA holds the information that you request.
Under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), all claims for reimbursement under the Scheme must be supported by evidence. You can view a copy of the Scheme on our website via this link. As such, we hold all supporting documentation provided in support of claims made by MPs.
Please find attached copies of all invoices and receipts submitted to us by the MPs in support of the claims specified in your request (Annexes A – F).
For reference, we have withheld any personal information under section 40 of the FOIA, and a small amount of information under section 31 of the FOIA.
Section 31(1)(a) (Law enforcement) of the FOIA states that information is exempt if its disclosure under the FOI Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the prevention (or detection) of crime. After considering the nature of the withheld information it is our opinion that were a disclosure to be made into the public domain it is probable that this information could be traced back to sensitive personal or commercial information which could be used for criminal activity. Although we recognise the public interest in transparency surrounding the publishing of information relating to MPs’ expenses, there is also a strong public interest in ensuring that we are able to protect our service users from the threat of being subjected to criminal activity. In our opinion the public interest in protecting the security of MPs and their property outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
Section 40(2) 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. For further information, you may wish to visit the UK Legislation website.
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- Ref:
- CAS-27206
- Disclosure:
- 29 September 2015
- Categories:
- COPIES OF RECEIPTS/INVOICESMPs' TRAVELMPs' OFFICE COSTS
- Exemptions Applied:
- Section 31