Copy of the receipt for a claim by Stella Creasy for Tesco

Request

Regarding the £30.98 expenses claim number 283508 from Stella Creasy for Tesco, please provide a copy of the receipt. Please redact anything required to comply with your rules.


Response

IPSA holds the information that you request.

Members of Parliament are permitted, under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), to claim for expenses legitimately incurred whilst carrying out their parliamentary duties and are required to certify that this is the case before submitting claims.  This may include any food or drink costs incurred for the purpose of hospitality.   

IPSA does not, as a matter of course, publish images of receipts or invoices supporting claims. We believe that the information we proactively publish on IPSA’s Publication website provides a significant amount of detail and gives a clear picture of what MPs are claiming for and affords reassurance that claims are both appropriate for MPs to carry out their parliamentary functions, and in accordance with the rules set out in the MPs’ Expenses Scheme.

The table attached to this response (Annex A) provides the information released on IPSA’s publication website relating to these claims, as well as any additional information contained on the invoice and receipts held on record. Please note that in line with our stated publication policy, we have withheld payment details from the receipt.  We have withheld this information under Section 31(1)(a) (Law enforcement) of the FOI Act. This section of the Act states that information is exempt if its disclosure under the FOI Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the prevention (or detection) or crime.

After considering the nature of the withheld information it is our opinion that were a disclosure to be made into the public domain it is probable that this information could be traced back to sensitive personal or commercial information which could be used for criminal activity. Although we recognise the public interest in transparency surrounding the publishing of invoice information there is also a strong public interest in ensuring that as an organisation we are able to protect our service users from the threat of being subjected to criminal activity, which is achieved through our capacity to withhold certain information from disclosure. It is for this reason that we have decided that the application of the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

View the claim.

Ref:
F1314-234
Disclosure:
5 March 2014
Categories:
COPIES OF RECEIPTS/INVOICES
Exemptions Applied:
Section 31