Details of rent and utility claims made by Tom Brake MP

I will take your requests for information in turn.

• Since IPSA was set up who has Tom Brake paid his rent to?

Mr Brake does not claim rental costs for residential accommodation, and so the information contained within this response relates to the rent of office accommodation.

You may be aware that IPSA publishes details of all MPs’ claims for business costs and expenses on our website, available at the following address: http://www.parliamentary-standards.org.uk/. Using the search function, you can search for details of all claims made by Tom Brake MP for office rent and utility costs.

At the end of each financial year, we also publish a range of additional information relating to each MP’s expenditure over the course of the whole year. This includes the names of the recipients of rental payments for residential and office accommodation from whom the MP rents under the terms of the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’). You can find this annualised data on our website.

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).

The most recent available data relates to the 2014-15 financial year. For reference, the name of the landlord contained within the 2014-15 data has not changed since IPSA began operations in May 2010.

Data for the 2015-16 financial year will be published later this year in November. 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 publishing a full and comparable list relating to each financial year rather than on an ad hoc basis, 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.

• What is the registered address of the person, or company and what is its registration number?

IPSA does not hold the registered address or registration number, although it may be publicly available via Companies House: https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company.

• Since the IPSA was set who has Tom Brake paid his utilities to?

IPSA holds the information that you have requested.

Since IPSA was established in May 2010, invoices submitted by Mr Brake in support of utility claims indicate the following suppliers have been paid for the provision of gas, water and electricity to his constituency office.

• What is the registered address of the person, or company and what is its registration number?

IPSA does not hold this information, although it may be publicly available via Companies House: https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company.