Expenses

The request was partially successful.

Michael Pollock

Dear Historic Royal Palaces,

By year over the past 3 years how much was spent on procurement or
"company credit" cards for the following categories:
1. Gifts for people leaving
2. Flowers
3. Chocolates
4. Alcohol
5. Clothing from high street shops
Yours faithfully,

Michael Pollock

Rachael Gilleard, Historic Royal Palaces

Dear Mr Pollock
I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act for details of expenditure on certain items purchased with company procurement cards, over the last three years.

Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) is the charity that looks after The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, The Banqueting House, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and Hillsborough Castle. We help everyone explore the story of how monarchs and people have shaped society in some of the greatest palaces ever built. We raise all our own funds and depend on the support of our visitors, members, donors, sponsors and volunteers.

Historic Royal Palaces has a strict expenses and hospitality policy which says “HRP will reimburse expenses that are incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of the duties of employment. Applying this definition means that expenses should be both an acceptable use of charitable funds and should not result in a taxable benefit to you…”. All expenses are signed off by an appropriate level of management.

We do not classify expenditure in the way that you have requested. The only exception is for retirement gifts. For the last three financial years (covering the period April 2013 to March 2016) our accounts show that we have spent £311 under this code.

Expenditure on procurement card statements is listed by different categories of spend/supplier rather than the level of detail which you have requested. We would therefore need to examine individual receipts to fulfil your request. Historic Royal Palaces receives 140 statements per month for our procurement card holders. This equates to in excess of 5,000 statements over a three-year period. Two of the three years’ worth of data would need to be retrieved from archive storage.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, s 12, organisations can refuse to provide the information if the cost of providing it exceeds a defined cost limit. Given that the cost limit for our organisation is £450, and applying the rate per hour as defined on the Information Commissioner’s website of £25, this would allow for 18 hours of work.

Reviewing over 5,000 statements and then locating and cross-checking the detail, some of which will need to be retrieved from archive storage, will exceed the cost limit. We therefore apply the s.12 cost exemption and will be unable to provide the information requested.

Historic Royal Palaces has an internal review procedure. If you are not happy with our response and wish to appeal the decision, you may request an internal review by writing to me explaining your reasons for seeking a review. If you are then not happy with the outcome of the internal review, you may then seek an independent review from the Information Commissioner under the Freedom of Information Act by email or by writing to:
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Website www.ico.gov.uk.

Kind regards
Rachael Gilleard

From: Michael Pollock [mailto:[FOI #320789 email]]
Sent: 08 March 2016 06:50
To: Alyson Lawton
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Expenses

Dear Historic Royal Palaces,

By year over the past 3 years how much was spent on procurement or
"company credit" cards for the following categories:
1. Gifts for people leaving
2. Flowers
3. Chocolates
4. Alcohol
5. Clothing from high street shops
Yours faithfully,

Michael Pollock

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show quoted sections

Historic Royal Palaces is a registered charity (No 1068852), correspondence details, Hampton Court Palace, Surrey KT8 9AU Historic Royal Palaces Enterprises Ltd, a company registered in England (No 3418583) registered office Hampton Court Palace, Surrey KT8 9AU