Details of average security costs broken down by gender

I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request.

Your revised request had asked for a breakdown into the two categories mentioned in my earlier response. These categories were recommended measures and further measures.

Unfortunately, on re-reading my response, it appears that I did not explain clearly enough the amount of work involved in providing the information.

Recommended measures

An MP could request that IPSA makes a direct payment to Chubb alternatively they may apply to use their own supplier and claim back the costs.

To provide this information we would need to run reports to see which MPs had requested we make direct payments to Chubb. This information is held in one database and we would need to run four reports to retrieve the information for each financial year 2015/16 – 2018/19. We would then need to check on the gender of the MP. This is not necessarily captured in a separate field, and may not be obvious from the MP’s name.

We would then need to go into a second database and run reports to see which MPs had submitted claims for using their own security supplier. Again we would need to run four reports, one for each financial year and verify the gender of the MP.

Further measures

While this information is held in one database we would again need to run four reports and check the gender of the MP. We may have to run reports against different criteria, depending on how the MPs had submitted their claims.

I can understand the public interest in understanding about the use of security and the cost of this to the public, as well as the wider gender issue. However this information is subject to a Refusal Notice under section 12(1) FOIA. This exemption applies because we estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate limit as laid down in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. For IPSA this amount is £450 or 18 hours.

May I suggest that you narrow your request by reducing the number of financial years and/or the category of measures. I understand that doing so will provide a limited view of the situation.