Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether (a) the Prime Minister and (b) officials in Downing Street have had recent discussions with representatives of Fleetwood Strategy on the NHS.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations on official government business are routinely published on the gov.uk website. Party political discussions are a matter for the Conservative Party.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many drinks receptions were held in 10 Downing Street in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of official receptions are published in quarterly transparency returns on gov.uk.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Prime Minister's Office spent on hospitality in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Prime Minister’s Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office and as such their data is included within the Cabinet Office data.
I refer the Honourable Member to PQ 191749. We do not routinely publish departmental wide hospitality data, as has been the case under successive administrations. All Business Units within the Cabinet Office have a responsibility to keep official hospitality costs as low as possible and demonstrate good value for money.
Details of ministerial and senior official hospitality are published on a quarterly basis, and are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much their Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Prime Minister’s Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office and as such their data is included within the Cabinet Office data.
I refer the Honourable Member to PQ 191749. We do not routinely publish departmental wide hospitality data, as has been the case under successive administrations. All Business Units within the Cabinet Office have a responsibility to keep official hospitality costs as low as possible and demonstrate good value for money.
Details of ministerial and senior official hospitality are published on a quarterly basis, and are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much from the public purse his Office has spent on hospitality since 25 October 2022.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 24 November 2022, Official Report, PQ 95960.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on taxi cabs for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Spend on taxi cabs in as follows:
| 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 (to 30/09/22) |
Total Taxi Spend | 883,520.53 | 1,619,210.30 | 341,060.18 |
Of which Government Car Service | 490,595.46 | 1,395,679.70 | 184,295.24 |
Spend on Government Car Service can be separated, however more widely we cannot split total spend by passenger so a broader breakdown of the spend is not available.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on first class train travel for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in (i) 2020, (i) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Based on our central contracts spend in the years requested is below:
2020 - £34,008.20
2021 - £44,083.40
2022 (until September) - £31,541.35
It is not possible to separate spend by ministers and civil servants.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Prime Minister's Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
For reporting purposes the Prime Minister’s Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office and consolidated as part of our group expenditure.
A) Spend on Agency staff is published as part of our Annual Report and Accounts, the last 3 years figures are:
Year | Spend £000s |
2019/20 | 68,824 |
2020/21 | 61,860 |
2021/22 | 51,651 |
Note - 2021/22 figures remain provisional until our annual report and account is published later this year.
B) We have interpreted your reference to agency retainer fees as the fees charged at the commencement of the provision of a search recruitment service, this is only applicable when recruiting for a permanent or fixed term post.
Agency retainer fees are not applicable to the contingent labour market.
We do not specifically record expenditure on retainer fees paid to recruitment agencies, and they form part of our overall recorded recruitment costs. This includes assessments, search fees and vetting and is undertaken both for our own purposes and cross government. We cannot separate out expenditure paid solely on retainer fees.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
For reporting purposes the Prime Minister’s Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office and consolidated as part of our group expenditure.
A) Spend on Agency staff is published as part of our Annual Report and Accounts, the last 3 years figures are:
Year | Spend £000s |
2019/20 | 68,824 |
2020/21 | 61,860 |
2021/22 | 51,651 |
Note - 2021/22 figures remain provisional until our annual report and account is published later this year.
B) We have interpreted your reference to agency retainer fees as the fees charged at the commencement of the provision of a search recruitment service, this is only applicable when recruiting for a permanent or fixed term post.
Agency retainer fees are not applicable to the contingent labour market.
We do not specifically record expenditure on retainer fees paid to recruitment agencies, and they form part of our overall recorded recruitment costs. This includes assessments, search fees and vetting and is undertaken both for our own purposes and cross government. We cannot separate out expenditure paid solely on retainer fees.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much their Department has spent on air travel for (a) Ministers and (b) officials in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The amount spent on air travel for Cabinet Office Ministers and officials via Departmental contracts in 2020, 2021, and 2022 is as follows:
2020 - £691,109.04
2021 - £1,447,806.97
2022 (January to March) - £1,029,308.49
These figures include COP26 travel booked via Corporate Travel Management.