Request for receipts submitted in support of expense claims

Request

You specifically requested receipts and associated documentation submitted by MPs for the following expenses (by claim number):

  1. 441006

  2. 485816

  3. 485232

  4. 457930

  5. 457930

  6. 476159

  7. 492998

  8. 569131

  9. 567713

  10. 644311

  11. 583264

  12. 588790

  13. 607952

  14. 559084

  15. 571107

  16. 703823


Response

IPSA holds the information you have requested.

The receipts and supporting documents have been extracted from IPSA’s online expense management system and corresponding files and are provided as PDFs.

In accordance with our Publication Policy, we have redacted some information from those receipts in accordance with section 31 (Law enforcement) and section 40 (Personal data) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

This includes information relating to:

  • all bank account and card details

  • invoice and transaction numbers

  • any passcodes or collection PIN numbers

  • email addresses and personal contact details

  • customer reference codes, meter numbers and other unique identifiers

  • third pry personal data

Section 31(1)(a)

This section of the Act states that information is exempt if its disclosure under the FOIA 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 commercial information which could be used for criminal activity. Although we recognise the public interest in transparency surrounding the publication 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 third parties outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

This concludes our response to your request.

Ref:
CAS-164502
Disclosure:
2 March 2020
Categories:
COPIES OF RECEIPTS/INVOICES
Exemptions Applied:
Section 31(1)(a)