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Department for Transport: Public Expenditure

Answer

a) All art used within the Department’s headquarters is on loan from the government art collection, while other images used around the building are sourced through typesetting contracts. Therefore, the department has not incurred any expenditure specifically on the purchase of artwork in the last 7 financial years.

b) The Department’s policy on Travel and Subsistence is that staff are not able to reclaim alcoholic beverages as expenses. Over the 7 year financial periods, no alcohol has been purchased for use within the Department’s premises, except where paid for (and not reclaimed) by DfT staff, or Ministers.

c) Hospitality is appropriate only exceptionally where there are external visitors. Information on spend incurred in the previous 7 financial years is provided in the following table:

	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
Central Department DfTc	£120,646	£67,362	£49,202	£63,850	£81,237	£103,173	£102,537
Executive Agencies:
DVSA	£663	£235	£199	£6,132	£140	£74	£15
DVLA	£64,561	£63,220	£52,752	£56,510	£30,233	£24,571	£26,244
MCA	£16,516	£13,442	£20,966	£21,858	£14,016	£28,195	£27,995
VCA	£14,322	£13,290	£21,002	£10,764	£13,852	£9,377	£7,395
Total Expenditure	£216,707	£157,549	£144,121	£159,114	£139,478	£165,390	£164,187

By way of comparison, it has previously been put on record that the Department and its Executive Agencies (including the Highways Agency at that time) spent £647,623 on hospitality in 2009/10.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

124716

Session

2017-19

Subjects

Artworks Department for Transport Wines Official hospitality

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk