MPs face having to follow MSPs and list details of all their travel expenses after the House of Commons authorities lost a landmark Freedom of Information case.

The Information Tribunal has rejected two appeals by the Commons commission that revealing details about members' spending would breach their privacy under data protection rules.

Now all 646 MPs look set within a month to have to list all their travel arrangements from taxi journeys to flights. At present, they have only to give general figures and no details.

Last autumn, it was revealed that Eric Joyce, Labour MP for Falkirk, ran up the biggest expenses bill for 2005-06 at £174,811; on average MPs claimed £125,377 on top of their £60,277 salary.

Mr Joyce, 46, also ran up the highest bill in terms of MPs' travel with costs of £44,985.

The former Army major said at the time: "I am clearly taking more flights than my colleagues.

"It is legitimate but when I look at it, it is clearly not sustainable, so I will do something about it."

By contrast, Michael Connarty, Labour MP for neighbouring Linlithgow and East Falkirk, had travel expenses of £21,945 while the furthest-flung MP, Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, notched up a bill of £38,559.

Norman Baker, the LibDem back bencher whose original FOI request in 2005 sparked the travel expenses case, said he was delighted with the tribunal's ruling.

David McLetchie, former Scottish Tory leader, stood down after a row over taxi claims and was forced to repay some expenses while Keith Raffan, the former LibDem MSP, quit just before details emerged of his travel expenses.

The Herald revealed some claims were made when Mr Raffan was not in the country. He had £6000 docked from his retirement grant as a result.