Details of expense claims made by MPs for previous 12 months

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

With the exception of claims related to security and disability expenses, IPSA routinely publishes the status of claims on its website.

The information on the website covers the period up to the end of March 2020; in September we will publish details for April and May and in November details for June and July.

Where it says, “You can select a year and type of data to download”, select the year of interest and then for the type choose individual claims. This will then download a .csv file listing MPs and whether their claims were paid, or refused and the reason for this.

As the current information is reasonably accessible on our website it is subject to a Refusal Notice under section 21 of FOIA. For the information due to be published in the future, we are relying on section 22(1) of FOIA.

This exemption applies because this information is intended for future publication by IPSA as part of our routine publication schedule. Section 22(1) is a qualified exemption and requires us to consider the public interest. MPs have a certain amount of time in which to submit their claims, and this period has been extended due to the current situation.

Once claims have been submitted there is then a period of validation and reconciliation, before the information is ready for publication.

In light of the validation and reconciliation procedure and because IPSA already has a schedule of routinely publishing this information, I find that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this time.