The questions have been paraphrased and the transcript may not be 100 per cent complete.

Q: Today is the day MPs expenses come out. You have been appealing the House of Commons decision on that.

R: Well it’s not quite like that. The way the Freedom of Information Act works is that anyone can make a request for information to any public body. And the House of Commons counts as a public body. And there have been requests for information about MPs expenses and we’ve made some rulings in particular cases. The House of Commons already does disclose some general information about expenses paid to MPs.

Q: But the current expenses do not break it down.

R: That was done as a result of the Freedom of Information Act. It does encourage the proactive disclosure of information and that was a thing which my colleagues sat down at the House of Commons and encouraged them before the act even started to be more open. And that’s where they went at that stage. But then some people have been making requests for more detailed information. And we had to look at those on a case by case basis and there has been a number of cases where people have been to the House of Commons asking for more detailed information. They have claimed that various exemptions apply and therefore they’ve refused the information and then the individuals who want to can come to my office and they can lodge a complaint. And we investigate whether or not it’s right or wrong.

Q: What about details of travel expenses?

R: Well that’s what has been refused at the moment. We’ll have to apply the test of the Act and the Act says there’s a presumption of disclosure. Everything which is requested, there is a presumption of disclosure unless there are good reasons for non-disclosure. And the Act has a series of exemptions which spell out what the various type of exemption might be. And some of these are absolute. If they apply then that’s the end of the story. But most of them are what is called…(inaudible). It means that you then apply the public interest test and you say is there a greater public interest in knowing the information or is there a greater public interest in withholding it. And the way the act works is that the public interest in withholding it must be greater than the public interest in disclosing it in order for it to be justified as not being disclosed.

Q: What about accommodation?

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• No room for Baldrick in overstretched army
• Freecycle booms as middle class feels squeeze
• Marksman gets £5,000 over ‘serial killer’ quip