To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what his Department's expenditure was on hospitality and entertainment in (a) 1996-97 and (b) 2005-06. (114037)

The information is as follows:

(a) Details of expenditure on hospitality and entertainment in 1996-97 for this Department could be made available only at disproportionate cost. However a global figure for Government expenditure by Ministers for official purposes can be found in my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister's answer to my right hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham on 9 February 1998, Official Report, column 17W.

(b) For 2005-06 the total expenditure on hospitality and entertainment of this Department was £1,769k.