To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission how much the Electoral Commission (a) spent on hospitality in each year since its creation and (b) has spent in 2006-07. (102850)

The Electoral Commission informs me that the information sought by my hon. Friend is not available in the precise form requested.

Expenditure specifically recorded as hospitality in the Commission’s accounts for each of the years from 2002-03 to 2005-06 was as shown in the following table.

Expenditure to date in 2006-07 is just under £51,000.

Corresponding figures for 2000-01 and 2001-02, the first two financial years of the Commission’s existence, are not available.

Other Commission expenditure may include incidental elements of hospitality, but these cannot readily be separately identified.