Catalogue description Government Hospitality Fund: Policy Papers

In May 1908, a deputation of members of parliament visited the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, to request that Parliament should set aside a sum of money annually for the purpose of organising official hospitality with a view to the promotion of international goodwill. The Chancellor agreed and the Government Hospitality Fund was instituted in the same year.

The fund was administered at first by His Majesty's first ommissioner of works, Lewis Harcourt, but in a personal capacity and not in his role as first commissioner. However, when Harcourt became Secretary of State for the Colonies in November 1910, responsibility for the Fund passed to his successor as first commissioner and became part of the ministerial responsibility of the Office of Works.

The initial vote was for a sum of £5,000 made in July 1908, and a deposit fund account was opened with the paymaster general, from which expenses were met. From financial year 1910-1911, the fund's estimate has been taken as a grant in aid, rather than by parliamentary vote, and expenditure from the fund is accountable to the auditor general. Balances remaining at the end of the financial year were not surrendered to the consolidated fund.

Some rules for the administration of the Fund were laid down in 1916, and a full time secretary was appointed on secondment in 1918, but there was no formal codification of the rules until 1921. The rules set down that on application by a competent government department to the secretary, the minister in charge of the fund had the authority to deal with hospitality for the foreign and colonial (and later dominion and commonwealth) ministers, and with entertainment involved in any international conferences summoned by the government in the United Kingdom.

A permanent civil servant was appointed in December 1924, and from April 1928 the salaries of the secretary and his staff loaned from other departments were paid from the Treasury (later the Civil Service Department and successors) vote.

Originally, the hospitality was limited to visiting ministers (and the presiding government minister) only, but in 1963 the rules were relaxed for Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Meetings, when it was agreed that the visiting prime minister, his or her spouse, and up to two members of each delegation should be guests. From 1972 entertainment of visiting heads of state passed from the civil list to the fund. The fund also provided hospitality for visitors to departments falling outside of these parameters on a repayment basis.

Responsibility for the fund remained with the Office of Works until it was replaced in 1940 by the Ministry of Works and Buildings. Thereafter, responsibility passed to the Ministry of Works and Planning, 1942-1943; the Ministry of Works, 1943-1962; and the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, 1962-1970. In 1970 the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works was absorbed into the new Department of the Environment and responsibility for the Fund passed to the junior minister for housing and construction.

In 1974 responsibility for the Fund was passed to the Minister of the Civil Service. On the dissolution of the Civil Service Department in 1981, responsibility for the Fund passed first to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who had responsibility for those parts of the Civil Service Department that formed the new Management and Personnel Office. In 1982 responsibility was passed again, to one of the Ministers of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

The Fund was wound up in August 1999, and its functions relating to arrangements for visits and hospitality were absorbed into the Conference and Visits Group of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.