Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you provide a copy of the correspondence and other
records relating to the agreement in "exceptional circumstances" of
the parliamentary fees office with Alan Keen MP whereby his living
full-time in his expenses-funded second home has not been deemed a
breach of Commons rules, which state that an MP’s second home
should be where he or she spends fewer nights.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopi...

I do not require or expect you to reveal the addresses of the
properties concerned.

Yours faithfully,

T Henderson

Dear Mr Henderson

Thank you for your request for information dated 1 July 2009, received
by us the same day, which is copied below.

Following the recent publication of information about MP's expenses, we
are receiving unprecedented numbers of requests which, unfortunately,
has affected our ability to consistently meet the statutory targets for
a response. We are allocating additional resources to deal with this but
in some cases our responses are taking longer than we would like or we
commit to normally.

Information relating to allowances for the period 2008/09 - 2009/10 is
currently being prepared for publication and will be available as soon
as possible.

We will endeavour to respond promptly to your request within 20 working
days, i.e. on or before 29 July 2009.

If you have and queries about your request please use the request number
quoted in the subject line of this email.

Yours sincerely
________________________________________________________________
Brenda Brevitt
Project Officer
FOI, Department of Resources
House of Commons
P Please consider the environment before printing

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you provide a copy of the correspondence and other
records relating to the agreement in "exceptional circumstances" of
the parliamentary fees office with Alan Keen MP whereby his living
full-time in his expenses-funded second home has not been deemed a
breach of Commons rules, which state that an MP's second home
should be where he or she spends fewer nights.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopi...
nses-Alan-and-Ann-Keen-designate-boarded-up-house-as-main-home.html

I do not require or expect you to reveal the addresses of the
properties concerned.

Yours faithfully,

T Henderson

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Dear T Henderson

Thank you for your request for information which is copied below.

An independent study led by Sir Thomas Legg is being made of all claims
made against the second homes allowance between 1 April 2004 and 31
March 2009. A report of the inquiry will be presented to the House in
the Autumn. The terms of reference of the inquiry include:

* To examine all payments made on such claims, against the rules
and standards in force at the time, and identify any which should not
have been made, and any claims which otherwise call for comment;
* To allow Members who received such payments or made such claims
a fair opportunity to make representations about them;
* Subject to any such representations, to recommend where
necessary any repayments which Members should make and otherwise to
comment as seems appropriate; and
* To report as soon as possible to the Members Estimate Committee

The House considers that confirmation or denial of whether or not the
information is held (and the provision of data where held) would be
unfair as disclosure to the public generally would be likely to result
in trial by media. During Sir Thomas Legg's inquiry, it would be
unfair on the MPs concerned to have to deal both with media speculation
on such disclosures and with presenting their cases or points of view to
the inquiry and there is no guarantee that their representations in
response to the media would be heard or published.

Having considered your request we have concluded that until the Legg
inquiry has been finalised the exemption set out in section
40(5)(b)(i)of the FOI ACT applies. This exemption releases public
authorities from the obligation to confirm or deny whether or not
information is held when this action would not be consistent with the
data protection principles, in particular the fairness with which data
is processed Therefore your request is refused. This is an absolute
exemption and the public interest test does not apply.

In addition, in refusing to confirm or deny whether or not information
relevant to your request is held, the House relies on the provisions set
out in section 31(3) of the FOI Act. This exemption releases public
authorities from the obligation to confirm or deny whether or not
information is held when this action would be prejudicial to the conduct
of investigative proceedings. There is a public interest in the
transparency of the allowances system. However, while inquiries are
progressing, the House considers that the public interest in maintaining
the fairness of the inquiry and therefore the exemption must prevail.

You may, if dissatisfied with the treatment of your request, ask the
House of Commons to conduct an internal review of this decision.
Requests for internal review should be addressed to: Freedom of
Information Officer, Department of Resources, House of Commons London
SW1 OAA or [House of Commons request email]. Please ensure that you specify the
nature of your complaint and any arguments or points that you wish to
make.

If you remain dissatisfied, you may appeal to the Information
Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Bob Castle
Head of Information Rights and Information Security House of Commons

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Dear FOICOMMONS,

Thank you for your response to my request.

I understand that from the Parliament Library briefing paper,
"Reassessment of past ACA claims" that the Legg Inquiry is not to
cover all claims.:

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/res...

"1.2 Changes to the review
At its meeting on 20 July 2009, the MEC agreed two changes to the
review. First it was extended to cover the financial year 2008/09
and, secondly, the MEC agreed to exclude payments under
investigation by either the Parliamentary Commissioner for
Standards or the police from the review.
The minutes of the meeting recorded that:
The Committee agreed that the review by Sir Thomas Legg should be
extended to cover 2008/09. It also agreed that the review should
not cover payments which were under investigation by the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards or the police."

Furthermore, I gather that the records of the exceptional
circumstances which I seek to be released are concerned with
matters which have referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for
Standards.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/...

"Parliament's standards watchdog is to investigate two Labour MPs
who have been accused of misusing the Commons second home
allowance, it emerged today.

Ann Keen, a health minister, and her husband, Alan, have between
them claimed more than £130,000 over four years to fund a flat in
Westminster, even though their main home, in the constituency of
Brentford and Isleworth, is just nine miles away.

Under parliamentary rules, MPs are meant to nominate their main
home as the one at which they spend most nights.

But the Keens have been renovating their main home and it has not
been lived in for up to a year."

Accordingly, I request that the grounds for refusal to confirm or
deny the existence of the information be subject to an internal
review.

Yours sincerely,

T Henderson

Dear Mr Henderson,

Internal review request

Thank you for your email dated 30th July 2009 requesting an internal review of Freedom of Information request ref: F09-422, which was received on 31st July 2009.

Our internal target for dealing with internal reviews is thirty working days. We will deal with your request promptly and endeavour to provide a response by 14th September 2009.

If you have any queries about the review, please contact [House of Commons request email] quoting your request reference.

Yours,

Patrick Dawson

Data Protection and Freedom of Information Manager
Information Rights and Information Security (IRIS) service
Department of Resources
FOI
House of Commons
London

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Dear FOICOMMONS,

Internal review of Freedom of Information request ref: F09-422

As your quoted target date for your response has now passed, I
wonder if you are able to update me on the progress of the internal
review.

Yours sincerely,

T Henderson

F09-422

Dear T Henderson,

Please find attached response to your request for an internal review of
your Freedom of Information request F09-422.

Yours sincerely,

Katy Gray

Freedom of Information and Data Protection Coordinator

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