Itemised transport costs incurred by every MP for the calendar year 2019
Request
You requested information about itemised transport costs incurred by every MP for the calendar year 2019, up to the general election, presented as an Excel spreadsheet.
Response
IPSA holds some of the information you have asked for.
We are still receiving claims in respect of costs incurred during October to December 2019. Those already submitted are currently subject to validation processes.
Information about MPs’ expenses up to March 2019 has already been published on our website.
Additionally, all MPs have a profile page with information about their expenses broken down into categories.
This is the same information which is published in the main ‘annual publication’ spreadsheet, and may also be downloaded as a spreadsheet for each MP.
Every two months we publish individual claims made by MPs. These are published four to five months in arrears. This is except for the previous two publications which were delayed due to prorogation and the general election. Claims made between April and September will instead be published in mid-February. Information concerning expenditure covering the election will be published on 12 March (for October and November 2019) and 14 May (for December 2019 and January 2020).
As the information requested is either already published or is due for future publication, the following exemptions apply.
Section 21
The Freedom of Information Act states we are not required to provide information that is accessible by other means. Therefore, as the information you have requested is already available on our website, it is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the Act (information accessible to applicant by other means).
Section 22
Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act exempts this information from disclosure if it is intended for future publication. Information relating to expenses claimed for October to December 2019 is, therefore, exempt from disclosure as it will be published later in the year.
We have considered whether the public interest in releasing the information before publication outweighs the application of the exemption. It is our opinion that the public interest is best served by publishing a full list 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 we consider that the application of the section 22 exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this stage.
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- Ref:
- CAS-160073
- Disclosure:
- 16 January 2020
- Categories:
- Exemptions Applied:
- Section 21, Section 22