Submitted on Tuesday 10th May 2022
Rejected on Friday 17th June 2022
Current status: Rejected
Rejection code: no-action (see below for details)
Remove the tax-payer funded subsidy from House of Commons dining and bars.
With food prices rocketing and energy costs set to rise again in the autumn, many people are struggling to feed their families, and yet The House of Commons continues to subsidise the prices in it’s dining rooms, restaurants and bars, using tax-payer money.
We call upon the government, and the MPs of The House of Commons to address the disparity between the lives of ordinary people, and our elected representatives. Surely, during this time of widespread financial hardship, it is time for those both in power and opposition to take measures that demonstrate we really are “all in this together”.
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The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:
The House of Commons Catering service does not provide a subsidised service in the commercial sense of the word. Some venues make a profit, while 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 House of Commons publishes details of the cost of House of Commons catering services: www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/transparency-publications/hoc-transparency-publications/catering-services/transparency-reporting-catering-services/
Customers of the House of Commons Catering Services include some of the 650 MPs but also around 14,500 other pass-holders, many of whom are staff on lower wages that work irregular hours. In addition, members of the public and non pass holding visitors to Parliament also have access to these services. The irregular hours and the unpredictability of Parliamentary business contribute to increasing the net cost of providing a catering service. To offset this many of the restaurants, dining room facilities and their staff, are used to cater for private events at times when they are not required by the House. This is one of a number of measures used to reduce costs.
We could accept a petition calling for prices of food and drink in the House of Commons to be increased, either for all users or for Members of Parliament, if that's what you'd like to see happen.
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