Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

(asked on 23rd January 2023) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department’s publication of spending over £500 with a Government procurement card, what the (a) purpose of, (b) location of and (c) guest list was for the events for which Zafferano Catering was paid (i) £4,726.84 on 6 April 2022 and (ii) £2,567.64 on 14 July 2022.


Answered by
David Rutley Portrait
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 26th January 2023

The sums referred to relate to a range of events held at Lancaster House, hosted by Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon as FCDO Minister of State. These included:

(i) a luncheon with Caribbean High Commissioners on the 14th March and a reception for key representatives of the US on 16th March.

(ii) The Civil Service Operational Delivery Awards jointly hosted by the Cabinet Office and HMRC on 24th May

All expenses undergo rigorous oversight to ensure they are reasonable and adhere to FCDO spending regulations. We are not releasing the guest lists for these events given these contain personal data of third parties and release would therefore be contrary to our obligations under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

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