Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what is the (1) current, and (2) planned, expenditure on security for the House of Lords; and what is the governance process to ensure value for the taxpayer.

Costs for security are split between the House of Commons and House of Lords in accordance with an agreed ratio of 70:30. However, physical and operational security measures across Parliament benefit all users of the estate regardless of which House they are based in, so it would not be possible to determine the cost of security by House.

The House of Lords’ portion of security operating costs is published in the House of Lords Annual Report and Accounts; in 2021-22 this amounted to £18.26m. For security reasons the Houses do not publish capital expenditure on security mitigating projects as providing this level of detail could enable an individual to infer the extent and nature of the works, and thus the vulnerabilities which they were intended to mitigate.

The governance process for expenditure on security includes regular reports to the Finance Committees of both Houses, and oversight by the Clerks and Finance Directors of both Houses.