To ask the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, representing the House of Commons Commission, what estimate the Commission has made of the wages bill for catering staff in 1996–97. [8755]

On current estimates, £4.1 million. Estimates for catering and administration staff within this total are not made separately, but there is a separate budget for banqueting and souvenir staff costs, which are borne on a House of Commons Refreshment Department trading account. The approved trading account budget for 1996–97 includes staff costs of £827,000.

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that answer. No Member of the House grudges a penny that is spent by the Refreshment Department on wages, but many of us feel that when the Department is investing in new facilities, it goes for the gold plated rather than the practical. Will he give us an assurance that that will be considered thoroughly before any new investment is agreed?

The details of schemes of improvement in the Refreshment Department are for the Catering Committee and the Accommodation and Works Committee. The Commission has regard to the overall cost, but it must also have regard to staff working conditions and health and safety requirements.

Would it not have been wiser to have increased the poor wages of the catering staff in this place, instead of the ridiculous introduction of an extremely expensive and not very well functioning restaurant, when the previous arrangements were perfectly satisfactory?

The Commission was advised that the previous arrangements were not satisfactory from a health and safety point of view. They were not satisfactory in respect of the conditions in which we expect our staff to work. It is not sufficient to pay tribute to our staff: we must also give them satisfactory working conditions.