HC Deb 20 February 1995 vol 255 c86W
Mr. Byers

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what were(a) the amounts spent on domestic and household staff costs, (b) the number of domestic and household staff and the nature of their duties and (c) the cost of food and drink provided at each residence in each of the last five years in the official service residences in Gibraltar and the United States of America.

Mr. Soames

There is currently one official service residence in Gibraltar and one in the United States of America.

Twelve staff are currently employed in the Gibraltar residence, and four in the residence in Norfolk, Virginia. The duties of these staff include valeting, cleaning, cooking, waiting at table and gardening. Gardening at the Norfolk residence is carried out under contract. Staffing levels have been the same for the last five years. Based on annual capitation rates, the annual staff costs are £175,000 for the Gibraltar residence and £95,000 for United States residence, plus a £5,000 annual gardening contract. Although there have been other OSRs in Gibraltar in the past five years, information on these is not readily available.

Occupants of OSRs pay for food and drink for themselves and their families, and are provided with an entertainment allowance to fund official entertaining. The current annual rates of entertainment allowance for the two posts are £4,870 for the Gibraltar post and £7,470 for the Norfolk, Virginia post.

Mr. Byers

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the estimated final cost of the independent investigation into expenditure at Haymes Garth; and what is the estimated cost of the internal audit of expenditure on official service residences generally.

Mr. Soames

The estimated staff cost of the internal audit of expenditure on official service residences is £62,000. The cost of the report by Ms Sheila Masters was some £100,000.