Banqueting (2021)

Response

Please note that our response only deals with events in venues in the Palace of Westminster for which the House of Commons is responsible. Some Palace venues are the responsibility of the House of Lords, which is a separate public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), therefore you may wish to consider forwarding your request for event information in Lords run venues to the House of Lords directly.

1) The number of banqueting events held in the Palace of Westminster in the last 12 months;

As stated above, we hold information relating to House of Commons event venues in the Palace of Westminster only.

This information is held by the House of Commons. Information on the number of banqueting events is proactively published on an annual basis on the transparency section of the parliamentary website. Lists of events are provided in the separate Sponsored Events and Commercial Events sections on our webpages, and the number of events can be counted from this.

Information from November 2020 to July 2021 is already publicly available. This information is exempt from disclosure in accordance with section 21(1) and (2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), which removes a public authority from the obligation to provide access to information which is already in the public domain.  This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
It may help you to know that event information relevant to your request can be found on our parliamentary pages.

Information relating to event numbers for the period 1 August 2021 to the date of your request is scheduled to be published in September/October 2022. Therefore, this information is exempt under section 22 FOIA (intended for future publication). Section 22 is a qualified exemption, and accordingly we have to consider whether the public interest is in withholding the information or in disclosing it. The arguments for and against disclosure are detailed below.
The general argument in favour of releasing information is that there is a public interest in being able to scrutinise aspects of the House of Commons where that information might be easy to access and will not prejudice the House. The argument against disclosure is the public interest in permitting public authorities to publish information in a manner and form and at a time of their own choosing. It is a part of the effective conduct of public affairs that the general publication of information is a conveniently planned and managed activity within the reasonable control of public authorities. Where the decision has been made in principle to publish, there is a reasonable entitlement to make arrangements to do so.

2) Numbers of those estimated as attending each event when it was booked and the date;

This information is not held by the House of Commons.

While we hold information about people who access the parliamentary estate, we do not record the reason for their doing so, such as attending events. It may also help you to know that, while a guest list for an event may sometimes be passed to the House of Commons by the event organiser, these are destroyed one month after the event in line with Parliament’s record retention policy.

3) Names of organisations/MPs/peers sponsoring/hosting/holding each event?

This information is held by the House of Commons.

The majority of events held at the House of Commons are sponsored by MPs. This information is proactively published on an annual basis on the transparency section of the parliamentary website. Information from November 2020 to July 2021 is already publicly available. This information is exempt from disclosure in accordance with section 21(1) and (2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), which removes a public authority from the obligation to provide access to information which is already in the public domain.  This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
It may help you to know that event sponsorship information relevant to your request can be found on our parliamentary website.

Information relating to sponsored events for the period 1 August 2021 to the date of your request is scheduled to be published in September/October 2022. Therefore, this information is exempt under section 22 FOIA (intended for future publication). Section 22 is a qualified exemption, and accordingly we have to consider whether the public interest is in withholding the information or in disclosing it. The arguments for and against disclosure are detailed below.
The general argument in favour of releasing information is that there is a public interest in being able to scrutinise aspects of the House of Commons where that information might be easy to access and will not prejudice the House. The argument against disclosure is the public interest in permitting public authorities to publish information in a manner and form and at a time of their own choosing. It is a part of the effective conduct of public affairs that the general publication of information is a conveniently planned and managed activity within the reasonable control of public authorities. Where the decision has been made in principle to publish, there is a reasonable entitlement to make arrangements to do so.

The House of Commons also hosts commercial events, which are booked by individuals, UK registered charities, companies and organisations without the sponsorship of a Member or parliamentary pass holder. Whilst the House of Commons holds information about these private bookings, the names of the organisers are the personal data of those individuals. Therefore, the information is exempted from release by virtue of section 40 (2) FOIA, to prevent prejudice to data protection principles in Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.

It may help you to know that we also proactively publish some details of privately booked events, including some customer details in the Transparency area of our website.