HC Deb 03 March 2003 vol 400 cc805-6W
Mr. Gray

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her Department's hospitality budget(a) is in 2002–03 and (b) was in each of the last three years; and how much was left unspent at the end of each financial year. [99585]

Dr. Howells

The hospitably budgets for financial years 1999–2003 are laid out in the following table, together with the expenditure incurred on hospitality in financial years 1999–2002.

It should be noted, however, that from 2001–02 onwards the hospitality budgets were subsumed into a larger budget which included conferences and committees, as part of the Department's move to a delegated budgeting system. It is now for Directors to decide how much they would spend on each element, and consequently it is not possible to state a figure for the hospitality element of the aggregated budget and any underspend against that budget element, although it is still possible to identify the expenditure incurred on hospitality.

Year Budget Expenditure Underspend/(overspend)
1999–2000 51,941 32,533 19,408
2000–01 33,190 50,891 (17,701)
2001–02 28,657
2002–03