To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department spent on Ministerial hospitality in (a) 2004-05, (b) 2005-06, (c) 2006-07 and (d) 2007-08, expressed in current prices. (241239)

Spending by Treasury Ministers on hospitality is included within their conference and hospitality budgets covering internal and external conferences, catering and meeting refreshments. Outturn for the years requested are shown in the following table:

GDP deflators necessary to convert the aforementioned figures to current prices can be found at:

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/data_gdp_annex.htm