FOI 55-25: Information regarding Assembly Travel Allowance attendance forms submitted by MLAs from the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency from each of the last three years
Information Standards Freedom of Information Response
21 October 2025
Our ref: FoI 55-25
Freedom of Information Act 2000
I am writing to confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission (Assembly Commission) has processed your request dated 22 September 2025 in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). In your request, you asked for:
“[T]he Assembly Travel Allowance (ATA) attendance forms submitted by MLAs from the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency from each of the last three years?”
Our response
The Assembly Commission holds information in relation to your request. The relevant MF12 form and travel records in relation to the Members from Fermanagh and South Tyrone for the last three years have been provided at Appendix 1 (attached).
Certain information contained in these documents is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the FOIA, which provides that information is exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject and satisfies one of three conditions. ‘Personal data’ is defined by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR’).
The Assembly Commission is satisfied that the condition set out at section 40(3A)(a) of the FOIA is satisfied in respect of the information withheld. The condition is that ‘disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act…would contravene any of the data protection principles…’
The data protection principles are set out at Article 5 of the UK GDPR. The first principle is that processing of personal data must be fair, lawful and transparent. Processing is ‘lawful’ under the first principle if it satisfies one or more of the conditions at Article 6 of the UK GDPR.
The Assembly Commission does not consider that any condition at Article 6 would allow the lawful disclosure of personal signatures and phone numbers removed from the MF12 forms.
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 sincerely
INFORMATION STANDARDS
