Expensive Wines

The request was partially successful.

Dear Government Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine,

Please can you provide me with:

(a) the names and cost per bottle of the five most expensive types of wine currently in stock Government Hospitality Cellar at Lancaster House ('the Cellar'); and

(b) the names and cost per bottle of the five most expensive types of wine purchased during 2009 for the Cellar; and

(c) the total cost of the 20 most expensive bottles of wine purchased during 2009 for Cellar.

I know that the Committee has used commercial confidentiality as a reason not to disclose a full stock list in the past. In this case however I do not consider that this exemption can be relied upon to withhold the information requested for the following reasons:

(1) The UK was in recession during 2009 and this has had serious consequences on public finances and will continue affect public services. This means that the public interest in identifying potential waste or extravagance in the use of public money even stronger.

(2) The request is very specific and targets only the most expensive wines purchased and retained, where the public interest in favour of disclosure is greatest as disclosure will be likely to satisfy the public that there is no excessive expenditure or else identify waste or extravagance in the use of public funds.

(3) Disclosure will promote accountability and transparency in the spending of public money.

(4) Disclosure of information about hospitality may also assure the public of the personal probity public officials and where relevant elected representatives.

(5) Disclosure will also furthering the understanding of and participation in the public debate about the use of public funds.

(6) Disclosure will increase the ability of public to make informed judgements about the quality of decision making by public officials and the effectiveness of the policies and internal controls relating to purchases.

(7) Part (c) of the request does not require the names of suppliers or products to be disclosed.

Yours faithfully,

John Cross

John Cross left an annotation ()

I have tweeted about this here: http://twitter.com/confirmordeny

Government Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine

Dear Mr Cross,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. It has been passed to the relevant section within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal with. They will be in touch with you should your request need clarification.

We received your request on 11 January 2010 and will aim to respond within 20 working days.

Yours Sincerely

Scott Macdonald
Information Management Group
Information Rights Team

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Government Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Cross

Please find attached a letter explaining the delay in our response to your
query of the 12th January. My apologies that we have not been in contact
earlier.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Alexander

Robert M O'D Alexander OBE
Head of Government Hospitality l Protocol Directorate l Lancaster
House l Stable Yard l London SW1A 1BB

T: 020-7008 8517 l F: 020-7008 8526 l M: 07968 029477

Email : [1][email address]
l Blackberry: [email address]

NB. Out-of-Office messages are not sent to external (non-FCO) systems.

Visit our website at [2]www.fco.gov.uk and our blogs
at [3]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk

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Government Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Cross

Please find attached a substantive reply to your query ref. 0030-10 of the
12th January.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Alexander

Robert M O'D Alexander OBE
Head of Government Hospitality l Protocol Directorate l Lancaster
House l Stable Yard l London SW1A 1BB

T: 020-7008 8517 l F: 020-7008 8526

Email : [1][email address]

NB. Out-of-Office messages are not sent to external (non-FCO) systems.

Visit our website at [2]www.fco.gov.uk and our blogs
at [3]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. blocked::blocked::file:///C:/Users/ssatheesan/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Signatures/www.fco.gov.uk
file:///C:/Users/ssatheesan/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Signatures/www.fco.gov.uk
file:///tmp/blocked::file:/C:/Users/ssatheesan/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Signatures/www.fco.gov.uk
3. blocked::blocked::http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/
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4. http://www.fco.gov.uk/
5. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/

Francis Irving left an annotation ()

Blog post by John Cross about the response to this request.

http://confirm-or-deny.blogspot.com/2010...

Paul Webster left an annotation ()

"The total cost of the 20 most expensive bottles of wine purchased during 2009 therefore
comes to £2640.00."

That is 20 * 132 ... i.e. they bought 20 or more bottles at that price.