Departmental Official Hospitality

Michael Gove
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department and its predecessors spent on entertainment and hospitality in each year since 1997.

Ed Balls
The following table sets out spending on entertainment and hospitality in £ thousand for the Department for Children, Schools and Families and its predecessor Departments in the relevant years.

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|         |£000|
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|1996-97  |24  |
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|1997-98  |21  |
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|1998-99  |31  |
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|1999-2000|21  |
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|2000-01  |25  |
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|2001-02  |11  |
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|2002-03  |16  |
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|2003-04  |20  |
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|2004-05  |35  |
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|2005-06  |45  |
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|2006-07  |4   |
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|2007-08  |16  |
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The Department's policy on entertainment is in accordance with the principles of Treasury guidance in Managing Public Money and the handbook on Regularity, Propriety and Value for Money.

Entertainment expenditure is limited to occasions when official business can best be transacted in that way. Personal entertainment, in the form of hospitality, is usually restricted to where senior managers (deputy director or above) are acting as host and expenditure must be approved in advance by a director or executive board member.