Catering sales - biscuits (2020)

Response

We have interpreted this request to be for a breakdown of biscuits sold in venues of the House of Commons.
 
This information is held by the House of Commons.

Expenditure on biscuits.
 
Please note that for the 2019/20 financial year, data is only available for sales up to the end of January 2020.
 
It may also help you to know that the customers who use the on-site catering venues include some of the 650 elected Members of Parliament. However, they also include around 14,500 other pass-holders (MPs' staff, House staff, civil servants, contractors, Peers, members of the Press Gallery, etc.) as well as a large number of non-pass holding visitors to Parliament. Many of the restaurants and dining room facilities are also extensively used to cater for private events at times when they are not required by the House.
 
Please note that catering services for the House of Commons are provided by an in-house team who do not provide a subsidised service in the commercial sense of the word. Some venues make a profit, referred to as contribution because it contributes to reducing overall costs. In other venues, the cost of providing the service does exceed the income received in sales due to the irregular hours and unpredictability of parliamentary business. The contribution or cost of each venue is calculated by subtracting the food and operational costs from the catering sales. Rather than a subsidy, the House monitors the contribution or cost of each catering venue, which include cafeterias, dining rooms, restaurants and bars. Prices of food and drink are regularly benchmarked against appropriate external comparators.