Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many visits were made by Ministers of his Department to Torbay constituency in the 12 months to 14 October 2014; whom the invitation for each such visit was issued by; and what the cost to the public purse was of each such visit.

The Secretary of State visited the Torbay constituency on 17th September 2014. His visit was to Kents Cavern, part of the Geopark in Torbay. The invitation came from the local Conservative candidate for Torbay, Kevin Foster. All travel was provided by the Conservative party with no cost to the public purse.

Kevin Foster also passed on an invitation to visit Torbay to the previous Secretary of State, Maria Miller. This invitation came from the Torbay Tourism Association and was taken up on 5th March 2014. She attended and spoke at a lunch event hosted by the Torbay Tourism Association marking their Annual Open Day/Exhibition. The minister took the train from Paddington to Exeter St David’s and returned via the same route. The cost of three return tickets (including officials) was £192.75, so £64.25 per person. The minister was driven to Torbay from Exeter at no cost to public purse.

In both these cases, the Secretaries of State were driven by Kevin Foster, with the costs borne directly by him.