Information relating to IPSA's account

IPSA holds some of the information that you request.

IPSA routinely seeks legal advice in relation to the annual review of the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’).

In regards to the first part of your request, we carried out a review of a sample of the information we hold and the invoices sampled relating to legal fees did not allow us to separately identify costs attributable to specific cases as the fees were aggregated with other costs.  It may be possible, however, that this information is held within a portion of the invoices.  We undertook a test to estimate the amount of time it would take to determine whether we hold this information in hardcopy leases, many of which are in archive, both on and off site.  We estimate that it would take 27 hours of staff time to comply with the first part of your request.

In relation to the second part of your request, we do not hold a central record of the services provided in relation to the professional fees incurred by IPSA broken down by company.  This information is held within hardcopy invoices, many of which are in archive, both on and off site.  We undertook a test to estimate the amount of time it would take to locate, retrieve and extract this information from the hardcopy leases.  We estimate that it would take 10 hours of staff time which, taken with our estimate to determine whether the information is held for the first part of your request, takes us over the appropriate cost limit of £450 (part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information Act).  It should be noted that these estimates do not take into consideration the extra time it would take to order documents held off site in archive, nor do they include any follow up work that may be required for invoices if they do hold all the information requested.  Consequently, IPSA is not obliged to respond to your request (see section 12(1), FOIA).

However, we are able to provide the annual figures that relate to both parts of your request.  Therefore, please find attached at Annex A a breakdown of legal fees incurred by IPSA by financial year since May 2010 and at Annex B a breakdown of professional fees incurred by IPSA by financial year since May 2010.  .

Annex A – Legal fees incurred by IPSA between 7 May 2010 and 13 May 2013

Annex B – Professional fees incurred by IPSA between 7 May 2010 and 13 May 2013