§ Mr. Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his estimate of the cost of running his departmental office, and that of his predecessor, for each year since 1990ߝ91 including the current year, broken down into(a) telephone bills, (b) total staff costs, (c) press and communications, (d) entertainment, (e) alcoholic drinks, (f) non-alcoholic drinks, (g) stationery, (h) office refurbishment and (i) other. [6399]
§ Mr. HowardThe estimated cost of running my departmental office for the current year and for the previous two years are as follows:
1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 Total staff costs 1,326,343 1,612,746 1,771,631 Press and communications 11,083,793 14,140,920 10,958,900 Running costs 485,343 510,988 875,669 These figures exclude the cost of telephone bills which is not available as a specific cost to my departmental office.
The information on office refurbishment was given in reply to a question from the hon. Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks) on 18 December 1995, Official Report, column 968.
Expenditure on the other items in each of the last three years is not collected in the format requested but is included in the running cost expenditure which is shown in the table.
192W(1) June 1994, (2) January 1995 and (3) June 1995 or the nearest available date. [7687]
§ Mr. KirkhopeI will write to the hon. Member as soon as the information becomes available.