FOI 3429 Date requested: 20/05/2020

Leaders of political parties in the and dates that they took office

Request:

I’d like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act. If any of the information is not available, I would appreciate your assistance in signposting to who might hold the information. It may be useful to know that a similar request has been submitted to the House of Commons.

For each of the following political parties (a - h), please could you confirm: i) The leader of the parliamentary party, the party group in parliament, or other similar role (if any) ii) The leader of the party in the House of Lords (if any) iii) The dates that the above individuals took office (if known) a) The Conservative and Unionist Party b) The Labour Party c) The d) The Liberal Democrats e) The Democratic Unionist Party f) Sinn Féin (parts i and iii only) g) h) The of England and

If any of the above information is not held by the House of Lords, but similar information is, I would appreciate if you could assist me in refining my request.

Response:

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the FOIA”) provides a right of access, subject to specified exemptions, to recorded information held by a public authority. In the case of the House of Lords, the rights of access apply to recorded information held by the House of Lords Administration.

The House Administration holds this information where it relates to members of the House of Lords. Only three parties have leaders in the Lords. They are:

• Conservative – Baroness Evans of Bowes Park • Labour – Baroness Smith of Basildon • Liberal Democrat – Lord Newby

Information about members of the House of Lords, including the dates on which they took office, can be found on each member’s biography page via the following link: https://members.parliament.uk/members/Lords

As this information is already publicly available it is exempt under section 21(1) of the FOIA, which provides an exemption from the duty to disclose information which is reasonably accessible via means other than making an FOI request.

FOI 3429 Date requested: 20/05/2020

We note that you have also sent your request to the House of Commons which will respond separately with regards to its membership. The House of Lords and the House of Commons are separate public authorities for the purposes of the FOIA.

Outside the scope of the FOIA, it is likely that you will also be able to find the other information you seek regarding Members of Parliament (MPs, i.e. members of the House of Commons) online. You may wish to look at the MPs section of the Parliament website or the political parties’ own websites.