Parliamentary Written Answer (Correction)

Lord Barker of Battle Excerpts

Wednesday 13th October 2010 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)]

I would like to inform the House that a written answer I gave on 6 September 2010, Official Report, column 139W to my hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock) contained some inadvertent and minor errors in that VAT had not been applied consistently, the effect of which was to overstate the cost of the chairs. In fact several of the most expensive chairs were purchased for slightly less than the previous answer indicated. The hon. Member’s question tabled on 27 July 2010 asked how many chairs the Department of Energy and Climate Change had purchased since its creation; how much the Department spent in each such year; and what the five most expensive chairs purchased in each such year were.

In my written answer, I provided details of the Department’s expenditure on chairs for financial years 2009-10 and 2010-11. An error was made whereby VAT was included in the costs of a small number of chairs although the text of my answer suggested all costs excluded VAT. As a result the total cost of chairs bought by the Department was also incorrect .

The correct information is as follows:

DECC was formed in October 2008 and London-based staff moved into the Department’s headquarters, 3-8 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2AW, between March and June 2009.

In financial year 2009-2010 1,093 chairs were purchased by DECC.

The total cost for the above chairs was £261,000 excluding VAT.

The five most expensive chairs purchased were special chairs for staff required under health and safety advice. The cost of these were as follows: £811.10, £777.64, £773.85, £755.09 and £729.55 excluding VAT.

From April 2010 to date 25 chairs were purchased by DECC.

The total cost to date is £7,700 excluding VAT.

The five most expensive chairs purchased to date were special chairs for staff required under health and safety advice. The cost of these were as follows: £744.65, £722.15, £689.70, £682.75 and £633.75 excluding VAT.