Parental support for MPs

IPSA holds the information that you have requested. A copy of the records and correspondence in response to your request can be viewed here.

In addition to the documents provided, minutes of the IPSA Board meetings of 27 June where this issue was discussed have been published on the IPSA website.

In keeping with the Freedom of Information Act, IPSA assumes that all information can be released to the public unless it is exempt. Some of the information you have requested has been withheld under the following exemption.

Section 40 – Personal Information

Information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person is ‘personal data’, as defined by the General Data Protection Principle (GDPR).

Section 40(2) of the FOIA provides that personal information is exempt information if:

(a) it constitutes personal data; and

(b) the condition set out in s. 40(3A)(a) of FOIA is satisfied, namely that disclosure to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles in the GDPR.

In our view (a) is satisfied because some of the information sought by you relates to information about an identifiable, living individual, and (b) is also satisfied because disclosure would breach the first data protection principle in Article 5(1)(a) of the GDPR, which requires that personal information is processed fairly, lawfully and in a transparent manner; processing includes disclosure.

With regard to fairness, IPSA is required to process personal data in a manner in which people, including MPs and third parties with whom they engage would reasonably expect.

Information has been disclosed where individuals are acting in an official, public capacity.

We have withheld names and personal information about junior staff, members of the public and individuals whose contact with IPSA was of a private and personal nature. We further consider that these individuals would have a considerably higher expectation of privacy, and that we are, therefore, obliged to withhold this information.