IPSA holds the information that you request.

Under the Scheme of MPs’ Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), claims may be made for the staffing and business costs by MPs or others, which are in support of the MP’s parliamentary functions.

IPSA’s publication scheme sets out what we will and will not publish (including what we will redact) about MPs’ business costs and expenses. Further information about our publication policy is available on our website.

Expense claims and staffing costs

The information that you have requested is already published on our website.

In the top right-hand corner, select the financial year you are interested in.

Then select the ‘individual claims’ spreadsheet from the drop-down menu, and download the spreadsheet.

Specific categories of claims may be selected by using the filters on the top row.

The FOIA states that information that is accessible by other means is not subject to release. Therefore, as the information you have requested is either already available on our website or is intended for future publication, it is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the FOIA (information accessible to applicant by other means) or section 22 (information intended for future publication).

Correspondence between Mr Jared O’Mara MP and IPSA

Exemptions applied

Section 40 – Personal Information

Information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person is ‘personal data’, as defined by the General Data Protection Principle (GDPR).

Section 40(2) of the FOIA provides that personal information is exempt information if:

(a) it constitutes personal data; and

(b) the condition set out in s. 40(3A)(a) of FOIA is satisfied, namely that disclosure to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles in the GDPR.

In our view (a) above is therefore satisfied because the information sought by you relates to information about identifiable, living individual, and (b) is also satisfied because disclosure would breach the first data protection principle in Article 5(1)(a) of the GDPR, which requires that personal information is processed fairly, lawfully and in a transparent manner; processing includes disclosure. In relation to fairness, IPSA is required to process personal data in a manner in which people, including MPs would reasonably expect.

We do not consider it within the reasonable expectations of MPs that details about their correspondence with IPSA, would be disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. In this regard, we do not believe that disclosure would be fair, and are obliged to withhold it from disclosure under section 40(2) of the FOIA.

This part of the section 40 exemption is an absolute exemption and so no consideration of public interest arguments for and against disclosure is required.

This concludes our response to your request.