FOI 48-22: Funding of travel to pay respects to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Information Standards Freedom of Information Response

Our Ref: FoI 48-22

17 October 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 17 September 2022 in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In your request, you asked:

“It has been reported in the press that a number of MLAs traveled to London to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II as she lay in state. 

Q. Was there any provision of funding for the journey or stay provided?

Q. Was it solely MLAs that journeyed or were staff of the MLAs permitted to join them. 

Q. Please provide information on the so-called fast pass queue that

Enabled the MLAs to allegedly cut the queue. Did any staff also make

use of fast pass? Who facilitated the fast pass system to allow MLAs to

make use of it?

Q. How much funding, if any, was provided to MLAs for this trip?

If there is any other information pertinent to the subject please include it in your response to my email.”

 

Q 1. Was there any provision of funding for the journey or stay provided?

Travel arrangements for MLAs attending the Lying in State of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II were made and paid for by the Assembly Commission.

 

Q 2. Was it solely MLAs that journeyed or were staff of the MLAs permitted to join them. 

As stated above, the travel arrangements for MLAs attending the Lying in State of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II were made and paid for by the Assembly Commission. The Assembly Commission does not hold information in relation to any travel arrangements made in respect of staff of MLAs.

 

Q 3. Please provide information on the so-called fast pass queue that enabled the MLAs to allegedly cut the queue. Did any staff also make use of fast pass? Who facilitated the fast pass system to allow MLAs to make use of it?

All of the devolved administrations were given an allocation of invitations to attend the Lying in State of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. A small number of these invitations were allocated to staff of the Assembly Commission who were co-ordinating the MLA delegations.

 

Q 4. How much funding, if any, was provided to MLAs for this trip?

As stated above, travel arrangements for MLAs attending the Lying in State of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II were made and paid for by the Assembly Commission. The total cost of MLAs attending the Lying in State was £4955.89.

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 may appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF which will undertake an independent review.

The Assembly Commission may publish details of your FOI request and its 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

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