Request for a copy of an invoice for a claim made by David Lammy MP

Request

MP David Lammy made a £500 claim with Tottenham Hotspurs under the guise as office costs.

Please provide receipts and a clear breakdown what this payment was for.


Response

IPSA holds the information that you request.

Form TypeDate of claimExpense TypeDetailsReimbursedStatus
EXPENSES: OFFICE COSTS25/06/2018Const Office Buildings Insur.Constituency office insurance£500.00Allowed

Under the Scheme of MPs’ Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), the Office Costs budget is provided to meet the costs of renting, equipping and running MPs’ constituency offices. MPs who own their property are able to claim associated costs in accordance with Paragraphs 4.3 and 4.4 of the Scheme.

Please find attached, the requested invoice.

Please note, we have redacted information from the invoice under section 31 FOIA (Law Enforcement). More information on this exemption can be found below.

Exemptions applied

Section 31

We have withheld account numbers, invoice numbers and other information relating to the financial transactions contained within the invoices under Section 31(1)(a) (Law enforcement) of the FOI Act. We have also withheld details which, if disclosed, may compromise the security of the MP or their staff. 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.

This concludes our response to your request.

Ref:
CAS-139842
Disclosure:
2 May 2019
Categories:
Exemptions Applied: