Invoices for office costs claimed by Owen Smith

Request

Under an above request could you please provide a copy of the receipt/invoice submitted on claim reference 486932


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. The following information has already been published on our publication website relating to this claim.

DateExpense TypeNotesReimbursed
02/12/2015Newspapers/JournalsOffice newspapers99.50
03/01/2016Newspapers/JournalsOffice newspapers100.75
30/01/2016Newspapers/JournalsOffice newspapers80.60
10/01/2016Const Office Tel. Usage/Rentalmobile phone43.16
11/12/2015Const Office Tel. Usage/Rentalmobile phone42.03
14/01/2016Const Office Cleaningoffice cleaning120.00
17/02/2016IT/Other Equipment Hirephotocopying150.53
17/02/2016Const Office Cleaningoffice cleaning120.00
15/01/2016Professional Servicesaccessibility parking for office Amended from other to professional service42.00

To view copies of these invoices please click here to request them from our FOI team, quoting the reference number CAS-57215. (As these documents have already been disclosed under the FOIA, we are able to provide them immediately). 

Exemptions applied

Section 31 – law enforcement

We have withheld the account number, invoice number and other information relating to the financial transaction contained within the invoice 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.

Section 40 – personal information

Some information relating to third-parties, such as personal phone numbers and addresses, 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.

Ref:
CAS-57215
Disclosure:
13 September 2016
Categories:
MPs' OFFICE COSTSCOPIES OF RECEIPTS/INVOICES
Exemptions Applied:
Section 31