§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his 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. [99589]
§ Mr. RammellI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 27 January 2003,Official Report, column 567W on FCO expenditure on entertainment. Overseas missions and UK departments are allocated budgets which they are free to assign to purposes such as entertainment in order 1178W best to achieve their objectives. They also reallocate within their overall budget as the year passes. So there is no centrally-administered entertainment budget which would be underspent at the year's end.