§ Mr. Irvingasked the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, as representing the House of Commons Commission, if he will estimate the total accumulated additional cost of employing the necessary hourly paid staff of the Refreshment Department in each of the last two Sessions of Parliament when the House sat (a) between 10.30 pm and midnight and (b) between midnight and 2 am.
§ Mr. BiffenI have been asked to reply.
In the 1981–82 Session, the number of occasions when the House sat between (a) 10.30 pm and midnight and (b) between midnight and 2 am was 64 and 17, respectively, and the approximate cost of employing the necessary hourly-paid staff of the Refreshment Department for those periods was (a) £3,060 and (b) £2,290.
The comparable figures for the 1982–83 Session were (a) 47 and (b) 13 occasions, respectively, at an approximate cost of (a) £2,380 and (b) £1,860.