Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department’s publication of spending over £500 with a Government procurement card in July 2021, for how many (a) individuals and (b) nights accommodation was purchased at the Athenaeum London on 23 July 2021; and what the purpose was for that stay at that hotel.

Although the Rt Hon Lady asks about a transaction that took place in July 2021, that is, in fact, the date the transaction was cleared from the Cabinet Office’s expenses system.

A procurement card was used by the then Deputy National Security Adviser Paddy McGuiness to host a lunch for 9 guests at the Athenaeum on the 29th September, 2017. The Deputy National Security adviser hosted French diplomatic guests, for a working lunch, ahead of a PM-level UK-France Summit that took place in January 2018.