Receipts for staff training claimed by Corri Wilson MP
Request
Could you please disclose the receipts submitted by Corri Wilson MP for staff training costs totalling £5121.90 for the financial year 2015/16.
Response
IPSA holds the information that you request.
Under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), MPs can claim the costs incurred in training staff members.
Please use the links below to view the invoices relating to the claims in question.
We have removed the names of staff members from the invoices. This information is ‘personal data’, as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). As such, we have withheld such information in accordance with section 40 of the FOIA. For reference, section 40(2) provides that personal information about third parties is exempt information if disclosure would breach the fair processing principle (Principle 1) of the DPA, where it would be unfair to those persons or is confidential. You can find out more information about personal data and FOI via guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on their website: http://ico.org.uk.
We have also withheld information relating to the payment of the claims (such as the MP’s card details and invoice numbers). We have withheld this information under Section 31(1)(a) (Law enforcement) of the FOI Act. This section of the Act states that information is exempt if its disclosure under the FOI Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the prevention (or detection) or 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.
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- Ref:
- CAS-40814
- Disclosure:
- 29 January 2016
- Categories:
- COPIES OF RECEIPTS/INVOICESMPs' STAFFING
- Exemptions Applied:
- Section 31