FOI 56-22: The cost of the Assembly since the May 2022 election

Our Ref: FOI 56-22

9 November 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 19 October 2022 in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In your request, you asked:

“I’m putting together the estimated costs for the Assembly since the May election for the Irish News.

Assuming an election is held in December, I’m saying that an eight-month Assembly term will cost around £10.5m.

That’s combining MLA salaries, expenses, staff and office costs.

Members' Salary Information 2020-2021 (niassembly.gov.uk)

For 2020-21, the total for MLA salaries and office holders allowance came to £5,251,629.

Members' Expenditure 2021 - 2022 (April to February 2022) (niassembly.gov.uk)

Members’ Expenditure from April 2021 to February 2022 – including constituency office, other expenses, allowances and staff costs – came to £8,771,923.

Based on these previous figures, this would mean that by December an estimated £3,501,086 will be spent on MLA salaries and office holder allowance.

Members’ expenditure would be £7,017,538. (This is based on the figures covering the 10 months between April 2021 to February 2022). So, for an Assembly term between May and December this year, the estimated cost is over £10.5m.”

 

The Assembly Commission holds some of the information requested. The figures provided are based on the actual expenditure from 1 May 2022 until 31 October 2022 as outlined in Appendix A. Figures for November and December 2022 are not yet held by the Assembly Commission and cannot be provided at this time.

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

INFORMATION STANDARDS

 

Appendix A