Bellamy's cost subsidies
Kitty made this Official Information request to The Treasury
The request was refused by The Treasury.
From: Kitty
Dear The Treasury,
In 2009, Treasury papers advised that taxpayers incurred around $316,000-a-year to pay for a subsidy to keep costs down at Bellamy's, an on-site catering service which caters for the needs of MPs.
Please advise:
- Does this subsidy still exist today in any way, shape, or form? Have, or do, other subsidies of this kind exist for other specific catering services, or just Bellamy's?
- What form does, or did, this subsidy take for MPs? (Eg: Is it a monetary allowance per-MP, a discount applied at the counter, a grant given to the business operator in exchange for lower prices, etc?)
- What is, or has been, the cost to taxpayers for this subsidy year-on-year since 2009?
- If the subsidy no longer exists, what is the reason for this, and what mechanism is currently in place to keep costs down for the catering needs of MPs?
- If the subsidy no longer exists, please provide the figures for the year-on-year costs incurred by the mechanism which has replaced it/serves the purpose it previously served (since 2009, or as early as possible, if records begin later than 2009). For example, if there is a mechanism which was newly created to serve the purpose previously served by the Bellamy's subsidy, please provide a summary on the creation of this, and the year-on-year cost figures to date. If the subsidy's purpose was instead addressed by an increase to another existing budgetary allowance for MPs, please provide information on that, and the year-on-year cost figures for this allowance.
Thank you very much in advance,
Yours faithfully,
Kitty
From: Ministerial Services Inbox [TSY]
The Treasury
[UNCLASSIFIED]
Kia ora Kitty
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 which
was received on 2 October 2024 seeking:-
In 2009, Treasury papers advised that taxpayers incurred around
$316,000-a-year to pay for a subsidy to keep costs down at Bellamy's, an
on-site catering service which caters for the needs of MPs.
Please advise:
- Does this subsidy still exist today in any way, shape, or form? Have, or
do, other subsidies of this kind exist for other specific catering
services, or just Bellamy's?
- What form does, or did, this subsidy take for MPs? (Eg: Is it a monetary
allowance per-MP, a discount applied at the counter, a grant given to the
business operator in exchange for lower prices, etc?)
- What is, or has been, the cost to taxpayers for this subsidy
year-on-year since 2009?
- If the subsidy no longer exists, what is the reason for this, and what
mechanism is currently in place to keep costs down for the catering needs
of MPs?
- If the subsidy no longer exists, please provide the figures for the
year-on-year costs incurred by the mechanism which has replaced it/serves
the purpose it previously served (since 2009, or as early as possible, if
records begin later than 2009). For example, if there is a mechanism which
was newly created to serve the purpose previously served by the Bellamy's
subsidy, please provide a summary on the creation of this, and the
year-on-year cost figures to date. If the subsidy's purpose was instead
addressed by an increase to another existing budgetary allowance for MPs,
please provide information on that, and the year-on-year cost figures for
this allowance.
A response will be provided in accordance with the Act (please see the
Office of the Ombudsman Website for more details –
http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/).
The Treasury may publish the response to your Official Information Act
(OIA) request. When you are provided with a response to this request, you
will be informed about whether the response to your OIA request will be
published. If the Treasury does publish the response to your OIA request,
personal information, including your name and contact details, will be
removed. This publication process does not apply to extension letters or
transfers.
Regards
Nat
Ministerial Advisor | Te Tai Ôhanga – The Treasury
Visit us online at [1]https://treasury.govt.nz/ and follow us on
[2]Twitter, [3]LinkedIn and [4]Instagram
Link: [5]File-List
Link: [6]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [7]themeData
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show quoted sections
From: Ministerial Services Inbox [TSY]
The Treasury
[UNCLASSIFIED]
Dear Kitty,
Please find attached a response to your Official Information Act request.
Kind regards,
Nat
Ministerial Advisor | Te Tai Ôhanga – The Treasury
Visit us online at [1]https://treasury.govt.nz/ and follow us on
[2]Twitter, [3]LinkedIn and [4]Instagram
Link: [5]File-List
Link: [6]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [7]themeData
Link: [8]colorSchemeMapping
show quoted sections
Kitty left an annotation ()
Thank you for the advice Dan, I will do this and annotate if/when I get a response
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Dan Moskovitz left an annotation ()
Hi Kitty - the Parliamentary Service are usually pretty good at responding within the spirit of the OIA, even if they are not subject to it. So I reccomend sending this request to them (and I believe they are on FYI)
Link to this