Second Homes allowance

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

However, this information is subject to a refusal notice under section 21 FOIA, as information concerning whether any claims have been made is already available on our website.

A search of the summary data published for the MP, Boris Johnson has not revealed any costs associated with residential accommodation.

Details of how to access our published information and information about the rules governing claims are provided below.

IPSA was established in 2009 to:

• to regulate MPs’ staffing and business costs

• to determine MPs' pay and pension arrangements

• to provide financial support to MPs in carrying out their parliamentary functions

This means that, while we hold information about staffing and business costs incurred as part of an MP’s parliamentary role as an elected representative, we do not hold information about any costs relating to ministerial roles.

Rules for claiming staffing and business costs are set out in the ‘The Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs’ (the Scheme).

Chapter 4 and rules 10.6 to 10.10 of the Scheme set out the conditions whereby MPs may register properties with IPSA for the purposes of claiming accommodation and security-related costs. MPs who stay in rented accommodation can claim for running costs, including utility bills, subject to an overall budget cap. They cannot claim bills for their private homes or for things like mortgage payments.

You may also find some of our recent blog post Why do MPs need an accommodation budget? useful.

IPSA publishes costs relating to accommodation and constituency offices as part of our routine publication of MPs’ business costs on our website.

To view and download details of claims, you can either search records for individual MPs using the A-Z list on the ‘Search MP by name’ webpage (any accommodation costs are listed in the ‘Business costs’ section) or download a spreadsheet listing claims by all MPs – including accommodation-related costs – at Annual budgets, costs and claims.

On the page scroll down to the bottom and select ‘Individual Business Costs’. Download the spreadsheet for the year you would like to see.

To view residential accommodation costs, filter the ‘Category’ (column G) by selecting ‘Accommodation’.

This can be further filtered using the ‘Cost type’ (column H). To view constituency-related costs, filter on ‘Business costs’ (column G) and refine using ‘Cost type’.

Section 21 – information accessible by other means

The FOIA states that information that is accessible by means other than through a freedom of information request is not subject to release.

Therefore, as some of the information you have requested is already available on our website it is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the FOIA.

This means that IPSA does not need to supply you with actual copies of this information but does need to direct you to the place where it may be found.