Invoice for claim made by Tom Pursglove for volunteer costs

IPSA holds the information that you request.

Under the Scheme of MPs’ Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), Staffing Costs may be claimed to meet the costs of incidental expenses incurred by volunteers. MPs who engage volunteers must submit a signed volunteer arrangement with the volunteer to IPSA before any claims for incidental expenses will be made. The signed arrangement must comply with the model volunteer arrangement published by IPSA[1]. Incidental expenses are limited to reasonable travel and food, and non-alcoholic drinks.

Volunteers are not required to carry out specific duties for the MP, and they are assisting the MP with his or her duties on a voluntary basis. This often includes students on short periods of work experience, or individuals who simply require reimbursement for costs incurred on a one-day event.

Expenses incurred by volunteers are often paid to the MP who then reimburses the volunteer themselves. Details of all such claims are published on our website.

The following information has already been published relating to a claim made by Tom Pursglove MP for volunteer costs.

Please find attached a copy of the receipt submitted in support of this claim.

Please note, we have redacted payment information from this receipt under section 31 of the FOIA. More information on this exemption can be found below.

Section 31

Section 31(1)(a) (Law enforcement) of the FOIA 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 financial security of staff and volunteers engaged by MPs outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

[1] A copy of this form can be found on our website.