Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on (a) accommodation, (b) taxis or private cars and (c) alcoholic beverages in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2011-12 and (iii) 2012-13.

The Department is a geographically-dispersed organisation employing around 90,000 staff across some 870 sites, delivering services directly to around 22 million customers. The table below shows the expenditure on accommodation and taxis for the years in question. The average spend per head on accommodation for 2012-13 was in the region of £70.

The expenditure on taxis includes reimbursement of the cost of actual fares to support our disabled staff travelling to and from their place of work.

In the years 2008/09 and 2009/10 the Department’s spend on hotels under the previous administration was £11,264,324 and £11,694,697 respectively. This has almost halved under this administration. Spend on taxis for the year 2009/2010 was £1,526,863.

As the purchase of alcohol is exceptional, there is no separate finance code to identify this spend.