To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 14 May 2009, Official Report, column 909W, on departmental official hospitality, how much her Department spent on hospitality and entertainment in 2008-09. (290176)

The 2008-09 accounts have now been published and the expenditure on hospitality can be confirmed as £116,652.

All expenditure on entertainment (also known within the Department as hospitality) is made in accordance with published Departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on principles set out in “Managing Public Money” and the Treasury Handbook on Regularity and Propriety.