Lansley accused over ministry’s £109,000 tea and biscuits bill

 
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley who has been accused of a climbdown today over plans to scrap NHS Direct.
Craig Woodhouse29 March 2012
WEST END FINAL

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Andrew Lansley's Health Department racked up a £109,017 tea and biscuits bill in only three months, the Standard can reveal today.

Taxpayers have paid the six-figure sum for free “refreshments” for staff and visitors to the department’s London offices from January.

Ministers were said to be “staggered” after the figure was uncovered by Labour frontbencher Jon Trickett.

Department insiders said the money was spent under a PFI contract put in place when Labour was in power and pledged to look into the deal.

But Mr Trickett hit out at “reckless spending” at the department as it also emerged that taxpayers forked out almost £43,000 on taxis for civil servants between August and January.

He told the Standard. “It is clear that the chaos engulfing the NHS reforms has resulted in Andrew Lansley completely losing his grip on his own department’s reckless spending. This money would have been far better spent supporting NHS workers on the frontline.”

A series of parliamentary questions by shadow Cabinet Office minister Mr Trickett unearthed “wasteful” spending at several Whitehall departments, including:

A £214,059 bill for “free” refreshments at the Home Office between April 2011 and January this year.

£3,527 spent by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on cut flowers and pot plants.

£151,990 spent on taxi contracts between August and January at the Foreign Office and its trading arm FCO Services.

A health department spokesman said the catering contract for meetings, events and conferences dated back to 2005 and that the bill had been cut considerably from the £194,000 spent in the first three months of 2010.

He added: “Ministers have asked for a full and urgent review into the contract so that the costs to the taxpayer can be significantly reduced.”

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