a) Since 2010 the Department procured a printed portrait of Her Majesty the Queen for display in the reception of Eland House at a cost of £256.74 including VAT. This was funded from savings made by consolidating seven sets of papers and periodicals for Ministers and special advisers, delivering over £15,000 a year in on-going revenue savings. Previously the Department did not possess a portrait of Her Majesty, despite it being the legal title holder of the Government's civil estate on behalf of the crown. No artworks have been purchased by the Department in the timescale indicated.

b) Records indicate the Department spent £708 with Majestic Wine in 2010-11. There is no record of any further spend on wine in the timescale indicated.

c) I refer the Hon Member to the answer to Question UIN 107801 on 24 October 2017. Spending for catering and hospitality is down to £9,822 in 2016-17 from £456,142 in 2009-10. This is a total reduction of £446,320 or 98 per cent over the years.

The department has spent the following on hospitality in the last seven financial years:

The department does not hold specific data for how much has been spent on art and wine in the last seven financial years, only information on items that have been ordered from the government wine cellar (one occasion in 2014-15 totalling £113.05).

The Scotland Office has not purchased any original art in any of the last seven financial years; all artwork in our buildings is on loan from the government art collection or the National Galleries of Scotland. The Scotland Office does not separately record wine costs. Any such costs will be met from within the Office's events or hospitality budget. All expenditure incurred is in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.

The hospitality spend is shown below:

From 2016, events spend has been recorded separately to hospitality spend. This is reflected in the figures above and I refer the hon Member to my answer to the hon Member for Edinburgh North and Leith on 14 December 2017 (UIN 118330).

Figures for hospitality can be found in the table below. Wine is not purchased independently but included within catering expenditure on hospitality. It is not possible to identify the cost of wine within amounts paid and accrued for hospitality catering.

We do not hold figures for spending on art, separate from the Government Art Collection

All DWP artwork is provided on loan from the Government Art Collection free of charge.

The Department has no record relating specifically to the purchase of alcohol in each of the last seven years.

Expenditure on hospitality in each of the last seven years is set out in the table below. It should be seen in the context of the number of full-time equivalent staff employed by the Department, currently over 78,000. The Department’s guidance on hospitality is in accordance with financial procedures and propriety, based on the principles set out in Government Accounting.

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:

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.

The expenditure incurred by the Department on hospitality over the past seven years is in the table and the Department cannot identify expenditure in more detail. The Department has no recorded expenditure on the purchase of art.

Note:

*In 2012-13, some spend relating to conference costs has been miscoded to the hospitality account code. There is no means to identify the miscoded spend and thus hospitality spend is not separately identifiable in this financial year.

The amount spent on (a) art, (b) wine and (c) hospitality in the Wales Office for the last seven financial years is shown below:

The Cabinet Office has not purchased any art within the previous 7 financial years from 2010-11 to 2016-17.

The information requested on hospitality is not held centrally and therefore is only available at disproportionate cost. Overall spend on Travel, Subsistence and Hospitality can be found in the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts. The annual report and accounts for financial year 2010-11 to 2016-17 are accessible from the Gov.uk website at www.gov.uk/government/publications

The information requested on wine is not held centrally and therefore is only available at disproportionate cost.

Information to answer this question is not held at departmental level. A check would have to be made of individual premises across the HMCTS and HMPPS estates to obtain the information requested and this would incur a disproportionate cost.

However, I can advise that the Ministry’s policy on Gifts and Hospitality states:

When providing in-house hospitality (e.g. conferences and away days) for MoJ people, no alcohol is to be paid for from departmental funds. When providing hospitality to external parties, then discretion can be exercised with Director-level approval, e.g. a modest amount of wine with a meal.

The Department for Exiting the European Union has procured the following according to the information held by the Department’s finance system:

1. £580 was spent on the removal and installation of artwork in Departmental offices.

2. There are no identifiable transactions specifically relating to the purchase of wine.

3. The Department has spent £10,971 on hospitality since the creation of the Department.

Expenditure on art and wine can only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Purchases of alcohol are not permitted under Defra’s Travel and Subsistence Policy.

Defra’s expenditure on hospitality by financial year is set out in the table below.

a) The information regarding the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) expenditure on art is publicly available as part of the FCO's annual report on the gov.uk website. The FCO accounts for art as expenditure under Antiques and Works of Art representations of the FCO.

b) No central record is held of global expenditure on wines and spirits in the UK and overseas FCO. The Government Wine Cellar is managed by the FCO's Protocol Department and has been self-financing since 2011: costs are covered by sales of older, higher value stock. An annual report on the Government Wine Cellar is presented to Parliament each year under cover of a Written Ministerial Statement and is available on the gov.uk website.

c) The FCO accounts for its hospitality expenditure under Representation of the FCO and Business Hospitality. The total cost is

There has been no Departmental expenditure on acquiring art items over the last seven years. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) Art Collection has been disestablished and ownership of the most significant works have been transferred to other public institutions in order to ensure their continued protection and public display.

The amount spent on wine and hospitality is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The MOD has strict rules on hospitality, including the purchase of alcohol.

The spend figures on Hospitality are reported in the Home Office published Report and Accounts under ‘Travel, Subsistence and Hospitality’ for the following financial years.

FY2016/17 page 115:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627853/ho_annual_report_and_accounts_2016_2017.pdf
FY2015/16 - page 132:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/539638/HO_AR_16_gov.pdf
FY2014/15 – page 123
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441282/HO-AR15_web.pdf
FY2013/14 – page 109
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321446/ARA_web_enabled_18_June.pdf
FY2012/13 – page 131
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210660/Annual_Report_and_Accounts_FINAL_updated_logo.pdf
FY2011/12 – page 134
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/143619/annual-report-2011-12.pdf
FY2010/11 – page 113
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/120048/annual-report-201011.pdf

HM Treasury does not own, pay for or insure any art in the building it occupies at 1 Horse Guard’s Road. Art that is displayed throughout the building is rented from the Government Art Collection at nil cost.

Wine is not purchased independently but included within catering expenditure on hospitality. It is not possible to identify the cost of wine within amounts paid and accrued for hospitality catering.

The breakdown of the core department’s hospitality costs for the last seven years can be found in the table below.

*the 2017-18 costs reflect amounts paid and accrued in the financial year to date.

The Department does not purchase art. Any works of art held by the Department are loaned from the Government Art Collection.

The Department’s expenses policy does not allow staff to claim for the cost of alcohol of any kind. Wine is very occasionally provided at events for external stakeholders but the cost of beverages is not recorded separately within the cost of catering and hospitality.

Expenditure on catering and hospitality, covering the financial years since the Department was formed, is shown in the table below.