Receipt for claim by Richard Arkless for professional services

IPSA holds the information that you request.

Under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), all claims for reimbursement under the Scheme must be supported by evidence. You can view a copy of the Scheme on our website via this link. As such, we hold all supporting documentation provided in support of claims made by MPs.

Office Costs Expenditure (OCE) is provided to meet the costs of equipping and running an MP’s office. This includes the costs of office signage, as has been purchased by Mr Arkless in this instance.

Please click here to view a copy of the invoice submitted by Mr Arkless in support of the claim.

Exemptions applied

Section 31 – law enforcement

We have withheld the order ID, invoice number and other information relating to the financial transaction contained within the invoice 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 information relating to MPs’ expenses, there is also a strong public interest in ensuring that we are able to protect our service users from the threat of being subjected to criminal activity. In our opinion the public interest in protecting the security of MPs and their property outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.