Information about Joanna Cherry, MP’s expense claims

Request

Please supply all items of information held in relation to the following expense made claims by Joanna Cherry QC, MP for Edinburgh South West.

This should include all information in claim forms, receipts, invoices, and all associated correspondence, both internal at IPSA and between IPSA and Ms Cherry or her office.

In respect of 2017/18:

Claim ref no 647904, taxi, £263

In respect of 2018/19:

Claim ref no 666915, taxi, £666.25
Claim ref no 672008, taxi, £285.05
Claim ref no 702655, taxi, £502.80

Response

IPSA holds the information you requested.

Under the Scheme of MPs’ Business Costs and Expenses (‘the Scheme’), travel and subsistence claims may be made for the costs of travel, and travel-related subsistence incurred by MPs or others, which are in support of the MP’s parliamentary functions.

Details of all claims made by MPs are published on our website.

Form Type	Form No.	Date	Expense Type	Details	Journey	Reimbursed	Status
EXPENSES: Payment Card	647904	16/03/2018	Taxi	FESTIVAL CITY CARS	Between London & Constituency	263.00	Allowed
EXPENSES: Payment Card	666915	21/06/2018	Taxi	FESTIVAL CITY CARS	Between London & Constituency	666.25	Allowed
EXPENSES: Payment Card	672008	24/07/2018	Taxi	FESTIVAL CITY CARS	Between London & Constituency	285.05	Allowed
EXPENSES: Payment Card	702655	20/12/2018	Taxi	FESTIVAL CITY CARS	Between London & Constituency	502.80	Allowed

Section 38 – health and safety

We have withheld some information under Section 38(1)(b) (Health and safety) of the FOI Act. This section of the Act states that information is exempt if its disclosure under the FOI Act would, or would be likely to, endanger the safety of any individual. This includes: the mapped routes of each taxi journey, any information which may identify the private residence or overnight accommodation of the MP, and details relating to MPs’ vehicles including the specific locations at which they are located.

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 likely that this information could be used to endanger the safety of the individuals who rely upon these locations for accommodation. Although we recognise the public interest in transparency surrounding the publishing of this information there is also a strong public interest in ensuring that as an organisation we are able to protect our service users from threats to their safety. In our opinion the public interest in protecting the personal safety of MPs’ outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Section 40 – personal information

We have withheld the names and personal email addresses relating to third party individuals. Section 40(2) provides that personal information (as defined by the General Data Protection Regulation) about third parties is exempt information if disclosure would breach the fair processing principle (Principle 1) of the DPA, where it would be unfair to those persons or is confidential. Having considered the nature of the requested information, we do not believe that it would be within the reasonable expectations of these individuals in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, and therefore consider it to be exempt from disclosure.

Section 40 is an absolute exemption, which means a public interest test does not need to be carried out.

This concludes our response to your request.

Is this page helpful?

Ref:
CAS-142263: Disclosure:
17 June 2019: Categories:
GENERAL EXPENSES ENQUIRYCOPIES OF RECEIPTS/INVOICES: Exemptions Applied:
Section 38, Section 40