To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department has spent on (a) stationery, (b) ministerial hospitality, (c) taxis, (d) pot plants and cut flowers, (e) lost mobile phones, (f) IT, (g) staff training and (h) staff away days since May 2010.

I shall provide the hon. Member with a reply as soon as possible.

Substantive answer from Jonathan Djanogly to Sadiq Khan:

Regarding expenditure since May 2010 by the Department, I am able to inform the hon. Member of the following:

(a) Stationery; (f) IT; and (g) Staff training

The Department is not able to extract information from these expenditure categories on the period May 2010 to May 2011 from its accounting system without incurring disproportionate cost. Information for the whole financial year 2010-11 will become available once the process of collating and auditing the Departmental Annual Resource Accounts is completed.

(b) Ministerial hospitality

The Department incurred the following costs from ministerial hospitality from May to March 2010-11: £21,941.54; in the period April to May 2011-12: Nil. The costs of the events are shown in the following table:

(c) Taxis

The Department's accounting records do not record expenditure in sufficient detail to allow us to extract taxis from the overall total of “other travel costs” which includes rail, buses, private vehicle hire, taxis and private mileage.

(d) Pot plants and cut flowers

The MoJ does not have a budget for purchasing flowers for its buildings. Some buildings may have plants in reception areas to create a welcoming atmosphere for staff and visitors. However, it would incur disproportionate costs to go to all the buildings the MoJ and its executive agencies occupy (over 800 locations across the UK—mainly courts, tribunals, prisons and local offices) to find out if any trees or plants have been bought since May 2010.

(e) Lost mobile phones

The Department does not maintain a central record of lost mobile phones. This information may be held locally and can be obtained only at disproportionate costs.

(h) Staff away days

Away days are held mainly for team building, team training or business development activities. Such events are held off-site where suitable on-site accommodation is unavailable and where the conduct of the event is facilitated by holding it away from day-to-day business operations.

The Ministry's accounting systems do not separately quantify expenditure on away days. Costs are subsumed within other categories of expenditure depending on their nature and purpose, for example conferences/events or training. It would incur disproportionate costs to scrutinise all the individual transactions which might potentially include away day costs across the Ministry and its executive agencies.

All spending on away days is completed in line with the Finance Policy Manual, which is in line with HM Treasury Guidance on Managing Public Money, and states the following for away days and team building events:

"These occasional events are organised to develop working relationships and achieve Departmental objectives. They are acceptable as long as the event can be justified as good value for money and can demonstrate development achievements. Costs should be reasonable and comparable to the status of the event".

Wherever possible, taking into account room availability, size and flexibility, managers are expected to use Ministry or other public sector buildings for team events and away days rather than using external venues.