Receipts for office costs claimed by eight MPs

I will take your requests for information in turn.

• MP Name: Geoffrey Cox

• Date of claim: 17/08/2014

• Claim number: 389037

• Type: Hospitality

• View invoice

• MP Name: Margot James

• Date of claim: 21/05/2014

• Claim number: 374299

• Type: Food and Drink Volunteer (subsistence)

• View invoice

• MP Name: Jon Cruddas

• Date of claim: 01/12/2014

• Claim number: 400688

• Type: Office costs (other)

• View invoice

• MP Name: John Denham

• Date of claim: 06/08/2014

• Claim number: 375730

• Type: Food and Drink Volunteer

• View invoice

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 – D). 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.

Information not held

IPSA does not hold supporting documentation for the claims noted in the table below.

Under the Scheme, MPs can buy office supplies online using accounts IPSA generated for them with three suppliers: Commercial; Banner and CMA. IPSA will pay these suppliers direct, and MPs do not need to complete a form, reconcile the expense or send any receipts – IPSA will get all the information requested from the suppliers when the MP orders online. IPSA will then allocate these costs to the MP’s Office Costs Expenditure budget.

Further, an MP undertaking a journey by private transport (as the driver) in exercise of his or her parliamentary functions can be reimbursed for the mileage costs in accordance with rates set out in IPSA’s guidance (which are set by Parliament and administered by HMRC). It is not possible to provide documentation in support of a journey of this nature, and it is not therefore required by IPSA.