Norman Baker MP Member of Parliament for Lewes constituency
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Norman Baker,
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Lewes,
East Sussex,
BN7 2LJ.
Tel: (01273) 480281.
Fax: (01273) 480287.
Email: info
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MP slams cost to taxpayers of fighting FOI request on MPs' travel expenses
Lib Dem MP, Norman Baker, has today slammed the expenditure of over £17,000 by the House of Commons authorities in its two year battle to try and prevent the release of the breakdown of MPs' travel expenses. The breakdown of expenses was finally published last month after the Information Tribunal ruled in Mr Baker’s favour.
This figure has been revealed in an answer to a parliamentary question which Mr Baker tabled shortly after the Information Tribunal’s announcement that the Lewes MP had won his case. The parliamentary answer revealed that the total external legal costs of the two consolidated appeals on this issue had been £17,372 with half of this sum, £8,686, directly attributable to Mr Baker’s request.
Commenting on the expenditure, Norman Baker said:
"Winning the battle to publish a breakdown of MPs travel expenses was a very important victory in the battle to make Parliament more accountable to the people but it is outrageous that it should have come at such a high price.
"There was absolutely no reason not to release this information to the public in response to my initial request back in 2005 and it is wrong that such a sizeable amount of money was spent on a protracted legal battle to contest the release of information that, quite frankly, should have been in the public domain in the first place. I hope that the House authorities will think twice in future before spending such a considerable sum of taxpayers' money in this way."