Registered homes and council tax
Request
Under an above request might you please advise how many homes are funded by IPSA annually?
Additionally to the above how many persons in them homes have returned the £150 council tax rebate to yourselves as advised in your April bulletin?
Response
I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request.
Chapter 4 of the Scheme of MPs' Staffing and Business Costs provides information on MPs' accommodation costs budget.
You may also find useful this news article on Why do MPs need an accommodation budget?
The number of properties registered with IPSA is 1083. This figure consists of 640 registered constituency offices and 443 accommodations. The number does not include home offices or private residences.
Council tax is not claimed for "all homes funded by IPSA". The number of funded properties does not, therefore, equate directly to the number of properties for which council tax is claimed.
You can identify claims for accommodation-related costs in the details published on our website.
Scroll down until you find Other financial data, then download the file for the relevant financial year. On opening the file you can filter by Category, for Accommodation, and then by Expense Type, for Council tax.
In terms of information about those who have repaid the council tax rebate, this information is subject to a Refusal Notice under section 22(1) of the FOIA.
This exemption applies because this information is intended for future publication by IPSA as part of our routine publication schedule.
Section 22(1) – future publication
Section 22(1) is a qualified exemption and requires us to consider the public interest.
Where money is owed by an MP to IPSA they are given a reasonable amount of time in which to make the repayment, before any information is published.
In light of this and because IPSA already has a schedule of routinely publishing this information, we find that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this time.
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- Ref:
- RFI-202205-05
- Disclosure:
- 12 July 2022
- Categories:
- MPs' ACCOMMODATIONMPs' OFFICE COSTS
- Exemptions Applied:
- Section 22(1)