Freedom of Information

If you would like to make a new request, please consider the following advice.

If your request relates to something other than MPs’ pay, business costs, or IPSA itself, then we may not hold the information you are looking for.

We may have already published the information you are seeking.

Details of all claims made by MPs’ business costs are published on this website, and you can search all previous FOI responses.

When making a request, please include:

• your name

• an address for our response (post or email)

• a full description of the information required

If you wish to make an FOI request, please email FOI@theipsa.org.uk.

When we receive your request, we will respond within 20 working days. 

If you are unhappy with the response you receive, you can request an internal review.

Our Freedom of Information publication Scheme lists the types of information that we publish, or intend to publish.

Virtually all of this information can be downloaded free of charge.

Information about MPs’ business costs can be found by visiting MPs’ staffing and business costs and our Guide to MPs’ staffing & business costs.

At IPSA, we wish to be as fair and transparent as possible, and as such we will conduct an internal review of our FOI response decisions when requested.

An internal review can be requested if you are unhappy with a decision we have made to exempt or withhold data in response to your initial FOI request.

If you want to request an internal review, please send an email quoting the reference number of your initial request and the reason for your appeal, within two months of receipt.

The review will be conducted by a senior member of IPSA staff who was not involved in the original response decision – usually the Data Protection Officer (DPO) or Senior Information Risk Officer (SIRO).

This ensures your appeal is considered in a fair and impartial manner. You will receive a response detailing the factors considered as a result of your appeal, plus the findings and decision of the reviewer.

Should you remain unhappy with the decision, contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a further appeal.

The ICO will usually only consider an appeal when it is clear that the first stage of the internal review process has been exhausted.

When you make a request, we need your name and contact details so we can process and reply to your request.

In certain circumstances, where you have asked for your own personal data, we may also need information that proves who you are or that you are entitled to see the information you have asked for.

We are required to process this information to comply with our legal obligations.

We will not collect any personal data from you that we do not need.

We will only use the personal information to process your access request and any follow-up questions and to check on the level of service we provide.

We may need to share your request and contact details with the Information Commissioner’s Officer in connection with any appeal, investigation or audit. IPSA compiles statistics for our internal reports, such as the number of requests we receive. When we do this, it is done in a way that does not identify the person who made the request.

We also publish anonymised responses to Freedom of Information and Environmental Information requests in our FOI disclosure log.

Visit our Privacy pages for more information.

We publish information on the volume of requests received each year.

Annual overview

Disclosure of information requested

Requesters

Categories of information requested

Annual overview

Disclosure of information requested

Requesters

Categories of information requested