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Whitehall's £320,000 bill for TVs, stereos and DVD players
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor30 Dec 2008
MORE than £320,000 of taxpayers' money has been spent on flat-screen televisions, hi-fis and DVD players for Whitehall departments, the Standard can reveal.
The Tories said today that the figures, released in Parliamentary answers, were an "insult" to the recession-hit public.
The biggest spender was Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which ran up an £87,000 bill for stereo equipment, DVD players and flat-screen televisions over the past three years.
The second biggest bill was at the Treasury, which spent £42,000 on televisions, £25,000 on DVD players and £9,600 on hi-fis - despite Treasury Minister Yvette Cooper's claims to be leading a "war on waste" across government.
Other departments, including the Prime Minister's Office, claimed that the information could only be made available "at disproportionate cost".
Flat-screen plasma TVs have become a "must have" item for some households this year, but others have been deterred by prices. The spending figures were obtained by shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Philip Hammond.
Mr Hammond said: "The news that taxpayers' money is being used to buy tens of thousands of pounds worth of hi-tech TVs will come as a shock to families struggling to make ends meet this Christmas. It's yet more evidence of Gordon Brown's casual attitude to taxpayers' money - and it gives people a pretty good idea of where this Government's priorities really lie."
All the departments claimed that purchases were "incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety".
The Department for Transport's central HQ revealed it had spent more than £14,000 on flat-screen televisions alone. Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon said the new TVs were used in some cases for analysing witness videos for rail crash investigations, but others were for "monitoring news coverage".
Within the Treasury, the biggest spender was the Valuation Office Agency, which spent £16,740 on flat screen televisions and £9,652 on stereo equipment in 2005-06, £6,838 on flat screen TVs in 2006-07, and £2,056 on flat screen TVs and £178 on DVD players in 2007-08.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said most households had cut back on purchasing electrical goods because of the downturn, but "clearly it's Christmas all year round for Whitehall departments".
Mr Elliott added: "Too often in the public sector, the money left over in departmental budgets at the end of the financial year is used to fund a spending spree on new computers, TVs and furniture, because civil servants fear that if they don't spend it, they'll get a smaller budget the following year. This mindset has got to stop."
The spending figures come as Chancellor Alistair Darling seeks to slash more than £30billion from Whitehall costs through lower costs on IT, the sale of property and other assets and improved procurement deals.
Reader views (11)
...meanwhile, people in Hull are still suffering from flood damage two years on. The Government could've helped, but chooses not to - perhaps it's not on TV any more.
- Srs, London, 30/12/2008 18:03
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They all probably purchased their TV's etc in anticipation of watching Lord Mandy in his tutu being dragged across the floor by John Sergeant in Strictly Come Prancing.
- Joe, Thornton Heath, UK, 30/12/2008 17:47
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If they had to have these things - then why not second hand - and lead by example at the same time - A bit of the make do and mend culture of the Blitz - which a Mr Brown was keen on being adopted!!!!Lets see this happening in all Public Sector depts. Now that's something to keep a "Business" Secretary (A Peter Mandelson)- particularly one who has little real business experience!!
- Raymond, london, 30/12/2008 17:34
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The saddest thing about this story is that the '£320,000 bill for TVs, stereos and DVD players' would be no different under any other party. The politicians who are supposedly representing for us today, are all corrupt robbers who are lining their own pockets and feathering their own nests for the rainy day that is already upon us.
- Sharon, London, 30/12/2008 14:31
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I thought all idiotic ideas came from Government.
'Ralph from London' proves quite wrong!
- Anthony Pierce, Bromley, 30/12/2008 12:56
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Ed says "they're a necessary and valuable business tool", perhaps he could explain how they are such in Whitehall? The only clients they have are the public so there's no one to keep informed, there are no sales presentations as it's a service industry, in fact I can't see any valid reason to have them unless it's to keep staff abreast of developments but surely a simple email would do that?
- Bob, Cheam, 30/12/2008 12:36
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Of cousre one or two TV's around a large office can always be justfied, but the point of this exercise is to show that the departments concerned have absolutely no idea how to cut back non-essential expenditure (Hi-Fi for goodness sake!). Spending someone else's money is always much easier than spending your own, as MP's can testify from their own experiences with second-home "essential" expenditure.
On Ralph's point, we would all be better off if the Government took less of our money in the fisrt place and allowed us to choose how to spend it as individuals.
ThHe worst point about this story is that it reminds us that "Lord" Mandy made it to Christmas wiithout resigning from his latest publicly-funded job. May be the office TV scandal, or juicy revelations from his winter hols in Klosters, will bring him down before Easter.
- Dave, Bucks, 30/12/2008 12:14
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Just think of how much money could be saved if they didn't watch TV or listen to the stereo and actually did some work.
- Bob, Cheam, 30/12/2008 11:43
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Come on folks, get real! They have to have something to do all those long winter days.
- Fred, Horsham, 30/12/2008 11:19
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It's not like they're buying them to keep up with daytime TV. I work for a small company and over the past year or so we've bought a £2k plasma and a number of small flat screen TVs for the office and reception area. It's not because we have money to burn, but rather that they're a necessary and valuable business tool. Whitehall employs hundreds if not thousands of times more people than we do, so you'd expect them to need to spend more.
And Jaqueline, perhaps it seems counter-intuitive, but if everybody cuts back and saves during a recession, it'll make it deeper and longer. Strange, I know, but at least now if you feel the urge to splash out on a new TV you'd be doing it for your country.
- Ralph, London, UK, 30/12/2008 11:15
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And silly me who though there was a recession and a need to save money...
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London, 30/12/2008 09:40
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