Expenses claimed by Members within the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency

Our Ref: FoI 03-20

05 February 2020

Freedom of Information Act 2000

I can confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission holds information relevant to your request of 2 January 2020.  In your request you asked for the following information:

“Can I request the following under the Freedom of Information Act.

- Expenses paid out to each MLA from Fermanagh and South Tyrone since the last Assembly election.

- Expenses refused to each MLA from Fermanagh and South Tyrone since the last Assembly election and why they were refused.

- Colm Gildernew MLA was co opted just after the election, can I ask for Michelle Gildernew's expenses in the same period as well as any refused expenses.

- If possible, can the expenses be itemised?”

Please see the information attached at Appendix A in relation to the above request.

 

If you feel that the information we have provided does not meet your request fully, please contact this office as soon as possible.  You have the right to request a formal review by the Northern Ireland 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.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.  Please remember to quote the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

INFORMATION STANDARDS

 

Appendix A

All expenses and allowances paid to Members are published on the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission website.

This includes expenses paid to Michelle Gildernew during her winding up period following her resignation from the Assembly.

Attached is a list of claims for which payments were refused from 13 March 2017, i.e. the date Members signed the Roll of Membership following the 2017 election.

Please note that only claims, which did not meet the requirements of the Assembly Members (Salaries and Expenses) Determination (Northern Ireland) 2016, have been included in the report.  Duplicate claims or claims for recovery of expenditure which were returned to Members for any of the following reasons and then subsequently paid, or which would have been paid if they had been resubmitted, are not included in the report:

(a) Administration errors, e.g. statement not ‘ticked’, form not signed.

(b) Where an incorrect form has been submitted, e.g. a request for reimbursement when the expenditure should have been claimed as ‘Sundries’.

(c) A statement and not an original invoice has been attached.

(d) To process the claim would have exceeded the annual maximum expenditure recoverable.

(e) Where an invoice date relates to the previous financial year.

Member	Date of Invoice	Supplier	Item	Cost	Reason
Rosemary Barton	Nil
Jemma Dolan	23/08/2018	Centra	Chocolate	£1.20	Not admissible - claimed as part of a sundries claim
Arlene Foster	01/05/2019	Legraphics	Website Hosting	£228.00	Website had been taken down and unable to verify content.
Arlene Foster	30/04/2019	Legraphics	E-mail Hosting	£78.00	Not an admissible expense.  The Northern Ireland Assembly Commission provides up to 5 email addresses.
Colm Gildernew	22/06/2018	Copytext	Service of scanning equipment	£30.00	Not an admissible expense.  Computer equipment supplied by the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission
Colm Gildernew	Undated	Hegarty's Home Bakery	No details	£73.62	Not an admissible expense - only limited refreshments - tea, coffee, biscuits are allowed.
Colm Gildernew	12/12/2018	Signreload	Sign for Office	£288.00	Did not meet signage requirements of the Determination.
Colm Gildernew	23/11/2018	Hegarty's Home Bakery	Refreshments	£46.83	Not an admissible expense - only limited refreshments - tea, coffee, biscuits are allowed.
Colm Gildernew	18/02/2019	Hegarty's Home Bakery	Refreshments	£29.45	Not an admissible expense - only limited refreshments - tea, coffee, biscuits are allowed.
Colm Gildernew	23/03/2019	Copytext	Computer repair	£30.00	Not an admissible expense.  Computer equipment supplied by Northern Ireland Assembly Commission
Michelle Gildernew	Nil
Sean Lynch	06/09/2018	Cherry Tree Home Bakery	Cakes	£6.95	Only limited refreshments - tea, coffee, biscuits admissible.