Information about staff employed by former MP Dr Paul Monaghan

I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request. We are able to provide the following:

We are unable to provide any further breakdown about these staff, including information about exact salaries and we rely on a Refusal Notice under sections 40(2) and 40(3A)(a) of the FOIA. IPSA relies on this exemption because the number of staff is low enough that, disclosure of more specific information, could lead to the identification of individual staff.

IPSA therefore maintains that the information is 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,

IPSA then considered whether there was a lawful basis within Article 6(1) of the GDPR, on which it could rely for disclosure. It has not found a suitable base, and therefore relies on the exemption.

We are able to provide you with some general information about MPs' staff salaries for the year 2016-17; the first year that is available. A pdf accompanies this letter.