Copies of receipts for claims by former MP John Woodcock

I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request; copies of two documents accompany this response.

You will notice that most of the information has been redacted because it is subject to a Refusal Notice under sections 40 and 41 of FOIA.

Sections 40(2) and 40(3A)(a) personal data

This exemption applies to information which IPSA considers to be personal data within the meaning of Article 4(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) which states,

‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

The information is the personal data of Mr Woodcock and other third parties. IPSA then considered whether disclosure would breach any of the Principles relating to the processing of personal data in the GDPR.

The relevant principle falls at Article 5(1)(a):

Personal data shall be:

(a) Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject

IPSA contacted Mr Woodcock to seek consent to disclose the information but, as no response has been received, we feel it necessary to remove the non-obvious personal identifiers to protect both Mr Woodcock and the other third parties.

Section 41(1) information provided in confidence

This exemption applies where disclosure of information which has been received by a public authority, in response to a request under FOIA, would constitute a breach of confidence and where a legal person could bring a court action for the breach and that court action would be likely to succeed.

In accordance with the IPSA publication policy, the amount of these claims has been published and categorised as winding-up costs, and legal expenses.

IPSA has considered the other information relating to these claims and, in light of the fact that consent has not been received from Mr Woodcock, we find that disclosure could lead to a case against IPSA for breach of confidence and therefore we rely on the exemption at section 41.