Expenses for each MLA and for each inadmissible expense recovered from October 2019 to present

Our Ref: FOI 17-22

11 April 2022

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”)

I am writing to confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission (Assembly Commission) has processed your request dated 22 February 2022 in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In your request, you asked:

“I would like to request more information on the nature of the expenses and individuals or firms paid, beyond what is disclosed on the NI Assembly website.

For each MLA and for each inadmissible expense recovered from October 2019 to present, please disclose the following:

1. The Account Name; Transaction Date; Transaction Amount; Expenditure Description; and Supplier Name.

2. If the NI Assembly website does not detail the specific nature of the expense (for example, only says 'Sundry Expense'), please disclose:

- The specific nature of the expense.

- The name of the individual or business which ultimately provided the service.

3. The amount recovered due to it being inadmissible.

4. The reason why the expense was deemed inadmissible.”

Please find attached a report at Appendix A, detailing the expenses recovered, where the claims were found to be inadmissible.  For ease of use the report has been divided into three categories:

1. Inadmissible items that were not found in the same financial year they were processed.  In this case the refund is paid into the Consolidated Fund and as the prior year’s accounts are not adjusted these do not appear in the published expenses.
   
   
2. Inadmissible items that were found in the same financial year they were processed.  In this case the refund is posted into the Members Constituency Office Expenditure account and is therefore available for the Member to use.  These figures are included in the published accounts.
   
   
3. Where a Member leaves during a year, the annual allowance for Constituency Office Operating Expenses is pro-rata to the date of leaving.  In this scenario it may be possible for the Member to have breached the pro-rata annual allowance and recovery is sought retrospectively for expenditure incurred above the pro-rata limit once these calculations are carried out.  These will show on the published expenditure as “contribution to COOE”. 

A breach of the annual limit of Constituency Office Operating Expenses may also occur once the year end calculations are carried out for internal stationery purchases.  These charges are posted quarterly for stationery that has been ordered and purchased through the Assembly Commission’s Office Resources team.  If these charges cause the Member to breach the annual limit, full recovery is sought.  While the nature of the expenditure is admissible it is deemed to be inadmissible when the limit has been reached.

The recovery of expenses detailed in FOI 27-19 largely related to Sundry Expenditure and resulted from a very specific exercise that was undertaken to review receipts following an HMRC review.  This category of expenditure was removed following the introduction of the Assembly Members (Salaries and Expenses) (Amendment) Determination (Northern Ireland) 2020 in August 2020.

You have the right to request a formal review by the Assembly Commission and if you wish to do so, please write to me at the above address. If after such an internal review you are still unhappy with the response, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF who will undertake an independent review.

The Assembly Commission may publish details of your FOI request and our official response within the organisational disclosure log. The request will be completely anonymised and you will not be identified in any way. This is to meet the requirements as laid out by in the agreed publication scheme with the Information Commissioners’ Office.

 

Yours sincerely

INFORMATION STANDARDS

 

Appendix A