Claims for Twitter Blue verification

IPSA has agreed that in principle costs relating to Twitter Blue are claimable under The Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs, but only if the Twitter account to which the tick relates is used for parliamentary purposes only.

If MPs have made any claims for the Twitter Blue tick verification that were processed in January 2023, then publication of information about these claims will take place on 18 May, with information about claims for the following months being published in accordance with our Publication Schedule.

Any information we hold is therefore 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) 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 once submitted there follows 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, we find that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this time.