Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Bob Spink (Independent (affiliation)) on Wednesday, 6 May 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 8 May 2009. It was answered by Geoffrey Hoon (Labour) on Thursday, 21 May 2009 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Departmental Official Hospitality

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much his Department has spent on (a) conference services and (b) banqueting services in each of the last five years.
Answer

The requested information is as follows:

£
(a) Conference services (b) Banqueting services
2008-09 1,203,551 0
2007-08 1,007,578 0
2006-07 870,300 0
2005-06 483,717 0
2004-05 343,977 0
Notes:
1. Excludes spend in respect of DfT HQ and the Highways Agency as this is the responsibility of local business units/is not centrally collected and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
2. In some cases spend includes associated costs and not conference costs alone.

The Department for Transport is a federated organisation comprising a central Department and seven Executive Agencies. Conferences are organised in support of strategic objectives and the above data includes associated costs, such as stands and equipment.The increase in costs is due to the hosting of conferences for Executive Agency stakeholders (where no such conferences previously existed) and increases in the frequency and scope of other conferences.All expenditure was incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
492 c1489-90W; 274497
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Department for Transport Official hospitality
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk