Correspondence with Ian Paisley since July 2014 relating to budget overspends

Request

Please supply all correspondence relating to Ian Paisley's overspend on his office and accommodation budgets since 11 June 2014.


Response

IPSA holds the information that you have requested.

Under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), MPs are provided with various budgets to manage expenditure necessarily incurred in the exercise of their parliamentary functions.

MPs who spend more than their allotted budget in any financial year will be considered to have been paid an amount that IPSA subsequently determines should not have been paid. In this instance, IPSA can arrange for the amount to be deducted from further payment of claims to which the MP may become entitled or via salary deductions.

Information already publicly available

Details of all claims made by MPs each financial year, including those not paid or repaid can be found on our publication website.

The information published at the end of each financial year provides information on the total spend per MP, including those MPs with budget overspends.

Your request for information

In processing your request for information, we have considered whether disclosure of the information requested would (or would be likely to) prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. Such information is exempt from disclosure under section 36 of the FOIA, subject to consideration of whether the public interest in disclosure outweighs the application of the information.

Consideration of this exemption is carried out by a ‘Qualified Person’. IPSA’s Qualified Person is Sir Robert Owen, a member of IPSA’s Board who is required to have previously held high judicial office.

Sir Robert considered competing arguments for and against disclosure alongside the public interest in disclosure – and has concluded that the information requested is exempt from disclosure under section 36(2)(b)(ii) and (2)(b)(c) of the FOIA.

For reference, his full consideration can be view here.

Ref:
CAS-69901
Disclosure:
28 February 2017
Categories:
DEBTCORRESPONDENCE
Exemptions Applied:
Section 36