Redundancy payments made to MPs' staff after the General Election

Request

Under an above request could you advise following the general election of May 2015 how many persons received a payment on redundancy due to a MP either not standing for reelection or a MP being voted out of office?

Further to the above could you advise the total for all payments paid via yourselves to the persons as detailed above?


Response

IPSA holds the information that you request.

When an MP stands down or loses his or her seat at an election, their staff are made redundant. In such instances, staff members are entitled to redundancy payments in line with the terms specified in their employment contracts.

We are currently conducting assurance work relating to the General Election, which includes the information that you have requested relating to redundancy payments. We intend to publish this information in the coming months.

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. The information that you have requested will be published as part of a wider review, providing additional context and information surrounding the issue of staff redundancy. It is our opinion that the public interest is best served by publishing these figures alongside the other information rather than on a standalone 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:
CAS-38153
Disclosure:
14 January 2016
Categories:
WINDING UPMPs' STAFFING
Exemptions Applied:
Section 22