Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of hotel bookings his Department made for its (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in each of the last five years.
Jane Ellison
The Department implemented the Crown Commercial Services solution for travel awarded to Redfern Ltd on 1 July 2012 with all information taken from that system. Hotel bookings prior to that date were facilitated via an alternative provider with the information requested not being readily available. Total spend on hotel bookings by financial year broken down by Ministers, special advisers and all officials is in the table below split by overseas and United Kingdom arrangements.
Table 1
REDFERN TRAVEL LTD |
*July 2012-2013 |
2013-2014 |
2014-2015 |
2015-2016 |
Grand Total |
Hotels Accommodation (Overseas) Total of which: |
£19,771 |
£36,941 |
£86,181 |
£72,738 |
£215,631 |
Minister |
£153 |
£223 |
£808 |
£1,184 |
|
Official |
£19,618 |
£36,718 |
£85,306 |
£72,738 |
£214,380 |
Special Adviser |
£67 |
£67 |
|||
Hotels Accommodation (UK) Total of which: |
£242,946 |
£369,386 |
£319,169 |
£272,203 |
£1,203,703 |
Minister |
£118 |
£1,491 |
£747 |
£312 |
£2,667 |
Official |
£242,828 |
£367,895 |
£318,337 |
£271,785 |
£1,200,845 |
Special Adviser |
£85 |
£107 |
£192 |
||
Grand Total -UK and Overseas |
£262,717 |
£406,326 |
£405,350 |
£344,941 |
£1,419,334 |
Expenditure information taken from the Department’s I-Expenses system, Table 2, contains hotel costs incurred by officials that was later reimbursed. There are no hotel transactions relating to Ministers or special advisers within the system however additional information on expenses for Ministers and special advisers may exist where claimed via the manual expense claim form (EXP1). Investigation of this source to identify costs associated with hotels would incur disproportionate costs.
Table 2 |
||
I-EXPENSES |
This covers Accommodation UK and overseas for all staff. *No Ministers or Special Adviser costs |
|
Sum of Amount |
||
Financial Year |
Expense Type |
Total |
2012-13 |
130 Hotels Accommodation (UK) |
£15,861 |
131 Hotels Accommodation (Overseas) |
£14,128 |
|
2012-13 Total |
£29,990 |
|
2013-14 |
£18,123 |
|
2014-15 |
130 Hotels Accommodation (UK) |
£8,252 |
131 Hotels Accommodation (Overseas) |
£12,107 |
|
2014-15 Total |
£20,358 |
|
2015-16 |
130 Hotels Accommodation (UK) |
£4,933 |
131 Hotels Accommodation (Overseas) |
£6,918 |
|
2015-16 Total |
£11,851 |
|
Grand Total |
£80,322 |