Requesting a review

The Compliance Officer will, at the request of an MP, conduct a review of a decision by IPSA to refuse an expense claim in whole or in part.

Requesting a review large

If IPSA determines a claim submitted by an MP is to be refused or that only part of the amount claimed is to be allowed then, in the first instance, an MP should request IPSA to reconsider their determination.

The Compliance Officer must be satisfied that IPSA’s internal review process has been exhausted before carrying out a review.

If the decision remains unaltered following IPSA’s internal review, MPs may request a further review of IPSA’s determination by the Compliance Officer. If the Compliance Officer upholds the original determination by IPSA, MPs can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal.

If you wish to request a review, please submit your request as follows:

Please include the following information:

  • your contact details

  • claim number(s)

  • details of IPSA's review decision

  • an explanation of the grounds for contesting that decision

  • details of what you believe the correct payments should be, and how the figure was arrived at (if relevant)

  • any supporting documentation or details of where this can be found

The Compliance Officer will acknowledge any request within two working days.

COVID-19 and requests

In line with government advice, our office is currently closed and staff are working from home.

We are keen to ensure that we can continue to support you as much as possible during this period of remote working with minimal impact on our service.

We strongly advise you not to send information requests to us by post as we have very limited and irregular access to our London office. There are likely to be significant delays between mail being delivered to the office and us collecting it for processing.

We will continue to receive and process any requests sent by email.

When we receive a request for a Review it will be acknowledged by the Compliance Officer.

We will then write to IPSA to inform them that an MP has submitted a claim for a Compliance Review. IPSA will be asked to confirm the claim has been reconsidered by its own internal review function, and whether that process has been completed.

When confirmed, we will assess the information provided and determine what additional information is required to complete a full and independent review.

We will then request any additional information from the MP and IPSA we need to complete the Review.

On receiving the additional information, we will consider the representations and supporting documentation against the relevant edition of the Scheme of MPs' Staffing and Business Costs.

During the review process, we will also assess IPSA’s validation process to fully understand why the claims were refused.

We will then determine whether IPSA’s decision should be upheld or overturned in favour of the MP.

Once we have concluded our Review, we will send a statement of the decision to IPSA and to the MP.

The statement sets out whether IPSA's determination has been confirmed.

We may also include findings about the way IPSA dealt with the claim.

Following the statement findings, the MP has 28 days to appeal the decision to the First-tier Tribunal.

After the 28-day period has passed or any relevant appeals have been completed, IPSA will make any payments or adjustments necessary to give effect to our decision.

Once all the review stages have been completed we then publish our decision statement.

Learn more about our Investigations & Reviews.

Visit our previous decisions

Learn more about our previous investigations and read our decision statements.

Our decision statements