Dear House of Commons,

It would appear that there have been numerous cases where MPs'
expenses were poorly scrutinised by the staff within the Fees
Office, allowing over £1m of public money to be incorrectly paid
out to MPs.

I should be grateful if you could inform me, under the Freedom of
Information Act:

1. In the past 18 months, how many staff (if any) within the Fees
Office/Operations Directorate have been subject to any disciplinary
action as a result of their poor administration/scrutiny of MPs'
expenses.

2. If any have been disciplined, please can you advise what form
such discipline took (and how many staff were subject to each form
of discipline).

I appreciate that under s40 of the Freedom of Information Act there
is an exemption relating to personal information. To avoid this
request falling within the scope of s40, I confirm that I merely
want to know how many staff (if any) have been disciplined and the
nature of that discipline, not who has been disciplined. I
explicitly do not require any information which could be used to
identify any person within the Fees Office such as their name,
title, grade etc.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Greenwood

Dear Mr Greenwood,

Thank you for your request for information dated 5 February 2010, received
by us on the same day, which is copied below.

We will endeavour to respond to your request promptly but in any case
within 20 working days i.e. on or before 5 March 2010.

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

Yours sincerely

Louise Randall

Freedom of Information Assistant

_____________________________

It would appear that there have been numerous cases where MPs'

expenses were poorly scrutinised by the staff within the Fees

Office, allowing over £1m of public money to be incorrectly paid

out to MPs.

I should be grateful if you could inform me, under the Freedom of

Information Act:

1. In the past 18 months, how many staff (if any) within the Fees

Office/Operations Directorate have been subject to any disciplinary

action as a result of their poor administration/scrutiny of MPs'

expenses.

2. If any have been disciplined, please can you advise what form

such discipline took (and how many staff were subject to each form

of discipline).

I appreciate that under s40 of the Freedom of Information Act there

is an exemption relating to personal information. To avoid this

request falling within the scope of s40, I confirm that I merely

want to know how many staff (if any) have been disciplined and the

nature of that discipline, not who has been disciplined. I

explicitly do not require any information which could be used to

identify any person within the Fees Office such as their name,

title, grade etc.

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Greenwood,

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

In the past 18 months no staff within the Fees Office/Operations Directorate subject to disciplinary action as a result of their poor administration/scrutiny of MPs' expenses. Therefore the information you require is not held by the House of Commons.

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.

Bob Castle
Head of Information Rights and Information Security

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Castle,

Thank you for your prompt response, which is actually pretty
shocking to read.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Greenwood