MP's expenses, Douglas Ross

I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request.

The claims are described on the website as relating to parking (60067777-1) and rail travel (60066657-1). I have checked our systems and can see a comment made by the MP’s proxy at the time when the claim was submitted.

The comment says,

Douglas parked at Glasgow Airport, as this was most convenient at the time and flew to Heathrow – returning to Glasgow Airport. He subsequently has mislaid his parking ticket receipt that he received on exiting Glasgow Airport carpark. I have attached his original flight details plus his receipt for travel from Heathrow to Westminster and return in the hope that you will accept this as proof of parking.

The claim was not manually checked as it did not flag up on our system as high risk. The payment was made on the MP’s payment card and the supplier to whom it was paid is recognised as one through which travel can be arranged.

In light of the mislaid tickets, the MP’s office submitted documents in support of the claim. Copies of these documents are attached to this email. Some information has been redacted from the documents because it is subject to a Refusal Notice under sections 31, 38 and 40 of the FOIA and in accordance with Section C of IPSA’s Publication Policy.

RFI-202111-24 – Disclosure documents

Section 31(1)(a) – law enforcement

This exemption applies where the disclosure of information would or would be likely to prejudice the prevention of crime. IPSA relies on this exemption to withhold the banking details of the MP and other transactional references. IPSA believes that the disclosure of these details could leave those concerned more vulnerable to financial crime, in particular fraud and electronic crime, especially with the increase in cyber-attacks.

This exemption is subject to a public interest test. IPSA does not consider that the withholding of this information has a negative impact on the understanding of these claims.

We, therefore, find that the public interest in withholding this information outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this time.

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 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 person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly

IPSA considered that the following are personal data within this definition: names of MPs’ staff members and details about their employment with MPs. 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.