Official Hospitality (Hansard, 23 January 1996)

§ Mr. Douglas Hogg

[holding answer 15 January 1996]: Responsibility for this matter is delegated to agency chief executives and I have asked them to reply to the hon. Member direct.

Letter from G. K. Bruce to Mr. Tony Banks, dated 23 January 1996: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply, in respect of the Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD), to your question concerning hospitality.[9167] The following amounts have been spent on official hospitality for the three years concerned:

		£
1993–94	Actual expenditure	380
1994–95	Actual expenditure	422
1995–96	Projected expenditure	1,400

Letter from P. I. Stanley to Mr. Tony Banks, dated 23 January 1996: EXPENDITURE ON OFFICIAL HOSPITALITY You asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to provide information for his executive agencies on official hospitality expenditure in each financial year since 1993/94. The Minister has asked me to reply to you in respect of his Central Science Laboratory (CSL) Agency, as this is an operational matter for which I am responsible. Total expenditure for each of the years in question is as follows:

1993/94: £4.7K
1994/95: £10.4K
1995/96: £23.0K (estimated)

The Agency was significantly enlarged in April 1994 following the merger with the MAFF Food Science Laboratories at Norwich and Aberdeen, and this is reflected in increased expenditure from 1994/95.

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Letter from P. Needham to Mr. Tony Banks, dated 23 January 1996: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to you concerning your Parliamentary question (PQ385) in which you asked how much was spent on official hospitality by agencies associated with his Department in (a) 1994–95 and 1994–95; and what is projected for 1995–96. The costs incurred by ADAS on official hospitality for each of the last two years are as follows:

1993/94: £14,197
1994/95: £20,086

There is no projected figure available for 1995/96.

Letter from J. McNeill to Mr. Tony Banks, dated 23 January 1996: As Chief Executive of the Meat Hygiene Service, your question to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food concerning official hospitality has been passed to me to reply with regard to this Executive Agency. As you may know, the Meat Hygiene Service was established on 1 April, 1995. Therefore, there was no such expenditure in the year 1993/94. In 94/95, prior to the Agency's launch, £10,580 was spent on hospitality and current projections for this financial year are for a total of circa £7,000.

Letter from J. M. Rutter to Mr. Tony Banks, dated 23 January 1996: The Minister has asked me to reply to your question about expenditure on official hospitality by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, for each year since 1993/94, as this is an operational matter for which I am responsible.(9167) Expenditure on official hospitality, which principally covers buffet lunches for industry liaison meetings and advisory groups, was as follows:

1993/94: £1,034.63
1994/95: £1,817.26

It is anticipated that expenditure in 1995/96 will not exceed £1,000.

Letter from T. W. A. Little to Mr. Tony Banks, dated 23 January 1996: The Minister has asked me to reply to your question concerning spending on official hospitality in the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (known as the Central Veterinary Laboratory until 30 September 1995).(9167) The amounts spent on official hospitality in 1993/94 and 1994/95 were £16,720 and £12,076 respectively. I will write to you next week with projected figures for 1995/96.

Letter from T. W. A. Little to Mr. Tony Banks, dated 23 January 1996: I promised to write this week with the projected figures for spending on hospitality in the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) for 1995/96. The VLA was established on 1 October 1995, from the merger of the existing Central Veterinary Laboratory with the Veterinary Investigation Service, which was part of the State Veterinary Service. To provide this information it was necessary to incorporate expected spending from October 1995 to March 1996 by the former VI Service. Full year spending on official hospitality in the Agency is projected to be £16,400.