Christmas

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department and its agencies have spent on Christmas (a) cards, (b) parties and (c) decorations in each of the last five years. (171442)

The Department for International Development (DFID) has produced its own Christmas cards since 2004 for partners and stakeholders. Prior to this DFID purchased cards from UNICEF.

The information requested is in the following table:

	£
2003	¹4,500
2004	²2,211
2005	²2,102
2006	²2,169
2007	³2,674
¹ 6,000 cards purchased from UNICEF. ² 7,000 cards. ³ Expected costs (7,000 cards).

DFID does not pay for Christmas parties or decorations.

Volume 469: debated on Tuesday 11 December 2007