More information about claims made by Khalid Mahmood, MP

Request

In your email you asked for the following information:

  • April 2020: consultancy services: £1,500.00. To whom or to which organisation was this fee paid and what skill was required.?

  • May 2020: consultancy services: £2.500.00. To whom or to which organisation was this fee paid and what skill was required.?

  • June 2020: consultancy services: £2.500.00. To whom or to which organisation was this fee paid and what skill was required.?

  • July 2020: consultancy services: £2.500.00. To whom or to which organisation was this fee paid and what skill was required?

  • August 2020: consultancy services: £2.500.00. To whom or to which organisation was this fee paid and what skill was required?

  • September 2020: consultancy services: £2.500.00. To whom or to which organisation was this fee paid and what skill was required?

  • October 2020: consultancy services: £2.500.00. To whom or to which organisation was this fee paid and what skill was required?

  • November 2020: consultancy services £2.500.00. To whom or to which organisation was this fee paid and what skill was required?

Response

I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request, but some of it is subject to a Refusal Notice under sections 40(2) and 40(3A)(a) of the FOIA.

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

"personal data" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ("data subject"); an identifiable natural personal is one who can be identified directly or indirectly.

IPSA considered that the following are personal data within this definition:

  • name and contact details

We then considered whether disclosure of this personal data would breach any of the Principles relating to the processing of personal data in the UK 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.

As IPSA was unable to find a lawful basis on which it could rely within Article 6 of the UK GDPR, it therefore finds that the information is exempt under section 40.

However, we can give you some basic information from the documents which show that on all occasions the services provided were administrative support for the general daily work of the MP’s office, and research on a range of specific topics, so the MP understood the issues and was prepared for any meetings on these.

IPSA does not hold any information about the “level skill required” to carry out this work as we were not involved in advertising or employing someone to provide this service.

Ref:
RFI-202106-01
Disclosure:
28 June 2021
Categories:
MPs' OFFICE COSTSGENERAL EXPENSES ENQUIRY
Exemptions Applied:
Section 40