Expenses incurred by Keith Vaz MP when meeting new immigrants

Request

Under FOI, was any public expenditure occurred during Keith Vaz's coffee meeting with the first of the new EU immigrants yesterday? Who paid for the travel, refreshments etc. of the meeting?


Response

Members of Parliament are permitted, under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), to claim for expenses legitimately incurred as a result of their parliamentary duties, including those related to the recall of Parliament. 

Under the Scheme, MPs are allowed a maximum of 90 days for submission of claims after a business cost or expense has been incurred.  Claims relating to expenses made in January 2013 may be submitted at any point up to April.

IPSA does not therefore currently hold the information you request. 

Once the 90 day submission period has ended, all claims for expenses are then published on our expenses website every two months, three months in arrears.  Claims made in December 2013 and January 2014 will be published on 8 May 2014. 

Section 22(1) of the FOIA states that information intended for future publication is exempt from release.

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:
F1314-196
Disclosure:
15 January 2014
Categories:
GENERAL EXPENSES ENQUIRY
Exemptions Applied:
Section 21