More...
This appeal concerns invoices and receipts submitted by Members of Parliament in support of their claims for reimbursement of official expenditure. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority ("IPSA"), the statutory body established by the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 to oversee the claims process (among other functions), publishes details of claims on its website but does not publish copies of the supporting invoices or receipts. In December 2010 Mr Ben Leapman, then a journalist at The Daily Telegraph, made a request to IPSA under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA") for the information contained in three such documents to be communicated to him. IPSA responded with a transcript of information contained in the documents, including information additional to that published on its website, but refused to provide copies of the documents themselves.
This appeal concerns invoices and receipts submitted by Members of Parliament in support of their claims for reimbursement of official expenditure. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority ("IPSA"), the statutory body established by the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 to oversee the claims process (among other functions), publishes details of claims on its website but does not publish copies of the supporting invoices or receipts. In December 2010 Mr Ben Leapman, then a journalist at The Daily Telegraph, made a request to IPSA under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA") for the information contained in three such documents to be communicated to him. IPSA responded with a transcript of information contained in the documents, including information additional to that published on its website, but refused to provide copies of the documents themselves.