Question

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, further to the Answer of 14 March 2018 to Question 131599, on House of Commons: Catering, what (a) policies and (b) procedures are in place to ensure House of Commons catering services staff are paid any (i) tips and (ii) gratuities from a paying customer; and if he will make a statement.

The Catering Service ensures that all tips and gratuities given to staff are paid to staff.

Payments from tips and gratuities are administered in the following way.

• Currently, tips and gratuities given by customers are distributed between directly employed front-of-house staff in all catering venues.
• Where a gratuity is given by card or on account these payments are collated and recorded centrally and then the value of each tip distributed between the relevant named staff members each month. Managers currently have an element of discretion in this process. Cash tips are treated separately in each venue and distributed amongst the team at the discretion of the venue manager.
• The terms for agency staff are different. They do not receive gratuities given by card or on account, though they may receive cash tips at the discretion of the venue manager, because payments are made on a monthly basis using the PAYE system. Distributing small sums between agency staff, who are not paid directly by the House and may only work one shift during the month, would be administratively burdensome.