Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to her Department's publication of spending over £500 using an electronic purchasing card in February 2020, how many of the (a) attendees at the dinner at Miller and Carter on 11 February 2020 and (b) people who were provided with hotel accommodation from 5 to 10 February 2020 were (i) not employees of HM Government and (ii) overseas nationals.

(a) (i) Of the attendees, 26 were not employees of HM Government.

No Ministers or Special Advisers were present at the dinner.

(ii) Of the attendees, 6 were overseas nationals. The Department does not usually check the nationality of participants for this sort of activity, so it is not clear whether any of the representatives from UK based companies were overseas nationals.

(b) No one was provided with hotel accommodation between 5 to 10 February 2020.