Request for details of submissions on behalf of Northern Ireland MPs

Request

I will reword. Since the 9th April, has there been any submissions on behalf of Northern Ireland MPs.

If so, can you provide value and general area of the claim.


Response

I can confirm that we hold some information relevant to your request, however this is likely to be incomplete and any information we do hold is subject to a Refusal Notice under section 22(1) of FOIA, because it is intended for future publication.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, and in order to support MPs and their staff, IPSA took the decision to suspend the 90-day rule for claims, for all costs incurred since the start of January 2020.

This means that not everyone MP may yet have submitted their claims and for those who have the information about their claims will be published as part of IPSA’s routine publication schedule following the reconciliation and validation procedure. Details of the publication schedule can be found online.

Section 22 is a qualified exemption and requires us to consider the public interest. While there could be some benefit, in terms of accountability in disclosing any information on claims made by Northern Ireland MPs at this stage, due to the fact that this information is likely to be incomplete and will be published in the future I find that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this time.

Ref:
RFI-202005-6
Disclosure:
21 May 2020
Categories:
GENERAL EXPENSES ENQUIRY
Exemptions Applied:
Section 22