Details of MPs who claimed mortgage interest costs

Request

My request refers to the requirement for MPs who continued to claim mortgage interest payments on their second homes between May 2010 and August 2012 to repay part of any rise in capital value of the property during that period.

I would like to see a full list of MPs who have been asked to pay up, and how much money each has been asked to pay.

(For avoidance of any doubt, the demands for repayment were referred to in an article on page 5 of the Mail on Sunday dated 21.10.2012, headlined “MPs: We’ll sue Commons over tax claims on second homes”, which included the quote from an IPSA spokesman: “Central to the deal with MPs was that if the property rose in value we would ask for the taxpayers’ share of that increase. MPs who chose to claim mortgage interest up to this August knew that and agreed to it. We expect them to honour it.”)


Response

IPSA holds the information that you request.

The information that you have requested is intended for future publication and will be published on our website in spring 2013 [now available via this link].  Therefore, IPSA has taken the view that the information you have requested is exempt under Section 22(1) of the FOIA (Information intended for future publication).

We have considered whether the public interest in releasing the information outweighs the application of the exemption. It is our opinion that the public interest is best served by publishing a full list rather than on an ad hoc basis, as in this way a clear and complete set of information is published, avoiding any potential confusion. It is for this reason that the application of the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this stage.

Ref:
FOI2012-A092
Disclosure:
20 November 2012
Categories:
MPs' ACCOMMODATIONMORTGAGE INTEREST
Exemptions Applied:
Section 22