§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the annual budget and staffing levels of the Government hospitality fund.
§ Mr. GoodladThe Government hospitality fund employs 24 staff. The operational budget to cover the cost110W of guest of government visits and ministerial hospitality is £1.5 million.
§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how the members of the Government Hospitality Fund Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine are selected; and by whom.
§ Mr. GoodladAll members of the Government Hospitality Fund Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine are masters of wine—a qualification to which only 160 people world wide are entitled.
New members would be expected to have similar qualifications and to be senior and respected doyens of the wine trade.
When a vacancy occurs potential new members are identified from the small number of those qualified by other members of the committee and a recommendation for appointment is made to the Minister by the Secretary of the GHF.
§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will provide a breakdown of expenditure incurred by the Government hospitality fund for each of the last five years.
§ Mr. GoodladThe expenditure incurred by the Government hospitality fund falls broadly into two headings: hospitality, being the cost of all official lunches, dinners and receptions hosted by Ministers anywhere in the United Kingdom, and visits, being the cost of all state and guest of government visits made to the United Kingdom. The cost of visits in 1993–94 rose as a consequence of visits made by Ministers from the new nations emerging in the former Soviet Union.
Year Hospitality £ Visits £ Total £ 1989–90 437,635 652,761 1,090,396 1990–91 363,825 593,862 957,687 1991–92 321,527 718,410 1,039,937 1992–93 428,125 635,168 1,063,293 1993–94 395,545 1,014,795 1,410,340