FOI 06-25: Information regarding MLAs annual assembly travel allowance

Information Standards Freedom of Information Response

31 January 2025

Our Ref: FoI 6-25

Freedom of Information Act 2000

I am writing to confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission (Assembly Commission) has processed your request dated 2 January 2025 in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). In your request, you asked that the Assembly Commission provide-

"I would be grateful if you could provide the following information:

  1. Any current policy of the Assembly Commission related to the administration of the Annual Assembly Travel Allowance to MLAs.
  2. Any guidance on the process of auditing claims made for Assembly Travel Allowance for MLAs.
  3. Details of correspondence, submissions and original or amended forms and claims regarding Cara Hunter MLA's Assembly Travel allowance in the years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24."

 

Our response

The Assembly Commission holds information relevant to your request.

  1. The provisions relating to the payment of the Annual Assembly Travel Allowance (ATA) for MLAs are set out in paragraph 26 of the Assembly Members (Salaries and Expenses) Determination (Northern Ireland) 2016, as amended by the Assembly Members (Salaries and Expenses) (Amendment) Determination (Northern Ireland) 2020 ('the Determination'). A copy of which is available here.

    This is an annual allowance and is paid automatically to eligible MLAs on a monthly basis, through payroll, it does not have to be claimed.

  2. As set out in paragraph 26(3) of the Determination an MLA is required to attend the Assembly for 72 or more working days in order to be entitled to the full allowance. For each day less than this that an MLA attends the allowance is reduced by 1 %. MLAs are required to keep a record of their attendance at the Assembly. Annually Members are asked to confirm the total number of days attended and attendance records must be submitted to the Finance Office as part of this process. This forms part of the annual declaration that MLAs are required to make more generally regarding compliance with the Determination (MF12 Form).

    The records are checked to confirm only relevant, working days have been included, where 'working day' is defined as any day which is neither a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, nor day when the Assembly is in recess. Where an MLA has not attained the minimum number of days attendance, the allowance is reduced accordingly and recoupment of any resulting overpayment is then made through payroll.

    It may be helpful to note that as MLAs do not attend sittings of the Assembly or Committee meetings during periods of dissolution, ATA payments cease during election times. Therefore, even though MLAs may have attained the minimum level of attendance required, payments made during 2021/22 and 2022/23 were reduced for all MLAs.

    While the Determination specifies the minimum number of days attendance as 72 days, in a year where there is an election and MLAs are not attending the Assembly, this number is pro-rata accordingly. Similarly, during periods when normal Assembly business is not being undertaken and recess periods are not applicable, the minimum number of days attendance may also be adjusted.

    For ease of reference the minimum number of days attendance required for the periods in question were set as:

    2021/22 - 71 Days
    2022/23 - 65 Days
    2023/24 - 95 Days

  3. Details of all payments made to MLAs, including ATA, are published quarterly on the Northern Ireland Assembly website, which can be accessed here.Copies of Cara Hunter MLA's form MF12 for the years ended 31March 2022, 31 March 2023 and 31 March 2024 can be obtained my emailing the Information Standards team at foi@niassembly.gov.uk.

A number of redactions have been made to this information. These concern the names of Assembly Commission employees who are relatively junior (below Northern Ireland Civil Service Grade 7 equivalent). Signatures have also been redacted.

This information has been removed pursuant to section 40 of the FOIA, which provides that information is exempt from disclosure if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject and satisfies one of the three conditions. In this case, the relevant condition is section 40(3A) of the FOIA: '… disclosure of the information to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles.'

The data protection principles are set out at Article 5 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation. The first principle requires that personal data be processed 'lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals. Article 6(1) sets out six conditions for lawful processing, at least one of which must be satisfied. The Assembly Commission considers that the public task condition at Article 6(1)(e) is engaged, and notes the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 which supplement this condition.

The Assembly Commission does not consider that the processing of the names of junior employees or individual signatures is necessary to discharge its obligations under the FOIA. It is, however, satisfied that the disclosure of the personal data of other individuals named in Appendix A is necessary under the public task function.

 

Further Information

You have the right to request an internal review of this decision by the Assembly Commission. If you wish to request such a review, please write to me at the above address. If, after that review, you are dissatisfied with the way in which the Assembly Commission has handled your request for information, you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Your request for information and our response may be published in the disclosure log maintained by the Assembly Commission under a publication scheme agreed with the ICO. The request and our response will be anonymised.

Yours faithfully

INFORMATION STANDARDS

 

Review

You have the right to request an internal review of this decision by the Assembly Commission. If you wish to request such a review, please write to me at the above address. If, after that review, you are dissatisfied with the way in which the Assembly Commission has handled your request for information, you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Your request for information and our response may be published in the disclosure log maintained by the Assembly Commission under a publication scheme agreed with the ICO. The request and our response will be anonymised.

Yours faithfully

Data Protection and Governance Officer

Information Standards