Overseas Diplomatic Residences (Hansard, 20 January 1995)

HC Deb 20 January 1995 vol 252 cc748-9W 748W

§ Mrs. Clwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answers to the hon. Member for Cynon Valley of 6 December,Official Report, column 168 and the hon. Member for Wallsend (Mr. Byers) 16 January, Official Report, column 286, what information is collected about the cost of upkeep of overseas diplomatic residences owned by Her Majesty's Government.

§ Mr. Goodlad
Information on all expenditure associated with diplomatic properties is accounted for in accordance with Government accounting rules. The expenditure on upkeep of property at posts is recorded by functional subhead—maintenance, furnishing, utilities etcetera—and not by individual property. To identify the upkeep, therefore, of owned residences of heads of post, for example, it would be necessary to extract specific information from a range of subhead records held at posts. This is not readily done. With the advent of a new financial management accounting system in April 1996, it is the FCO's intention to make aggregation of the relevant figures more easily attainable.

§ Mrs. Clwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what factors made it(a) possible to provide information in respect of the cost of upkeep of diplomatic residences in response to the question of the hon. Member for Wallsend (Mr. Byers) of 16 January, Official Report, column 286 and (b) impossible to provide such information in response to the question of the hon. Member for Cynon Valley of 6 December, Official Report, column 168.

§ Mr. Goodlad
The question from the hon. Member of Wallsend of 16 January asked for details of total running 749W costs for certain posts and total entertainment costs for those posts. This information is held centrally and is therefore relatively easy to identify.
The question from the hon. Member for Cynon Valley of 6 December asked for details of the cost of the upkeep of owned residences of heads of post. Such expenditure is included in a range of overseas subheads which combine the total cost of maintenance, furnishings, utilities and other upkeep costs for overseas offices, heads of mission residences and staff residential accommodation. Since the responsibility for such maintenance is partially delegated to posts and partially exercised in London, each post would be required to prepare and submit separate analyses; this could be provided only at disproportionate cost.