Speeches

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