Location of MPs registered properties – follow up

Request

Thanks for your response. I am a bit surprised by it because I had previously been given the general location of properties for which MPs claim associated expenditure. The reference was CAS-125455.

You provided this information by examining associated costs under the scheme of MPs' business costs and expenses (according to the letter to wrote).

Maybe the system has now changed, however, but for clarity, I would like -

  1. The same information I received before (under CAS-125455). The general location of the properties rented or claimed against by MPs.

  2. A list of MPs who have changed location of the address they are claiming against since March 2020 and if possible,

    1. the general area of the previous address ie London, outside London or constituency. So for example, it might be that in 2019, an MP was claiming associated expenses for a property in their constituency, but in April 2020, they changed this address to London.

    2. If possible, I would be grateful if you could provide the month of the change.

Response

I can confirm that we hold some information relevant to your request, but it is subject to a Refusal Notice under section 21 of the FOIA.

Section 21 – information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means

Information on IPSA’s website would appear to answer your first question. On our page of annual publications, you can download individual .csv files for each year. You need those listed under Other financial data. When you open the file you can then filter by MP name, their constituency and then scroll along and filter on Accommodation budget. This shows whether an MP was receiving a London or Non-London budget for the rental of accommodation or if they were using hotels. You can also find out the start and end date of the lease.

IPSA does not hold information within the scope of your second question and I will explain why this response contradicts our response to CAS-125455. A review of the processing of this request showed that data from different sources had undergone analysis to create the information which was released.

This information could not be provided from one source and the fact that analysis was necessary to collate the information should have been explained. According to the Information Commissioner’s Guidance Determining whether information is held the information for this request was “created” and not held under the FOIA. Under the FOIA there is a distinction between what information an organisation may have in its systems and what is held and therefore caught by the legislation.

Ref:
RFI-202011-03
Disclosure:
5 October 2021
Categories:
MPs' ACCOMMODATION
Exemptions Applied:
Section 21