The Chief of Defence Materiel's Publicly Funded Hotel Stays in March 2012 Including

Defence Equipment & Support Secretariat

Maple 0A #2043 MOD Abbey Wood Bristol BS34 8JH

Email: [email protected]

D Moore Your Reference: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx xxxxx.xxx Our Reference: 30012013-102811-003 Date: 18 February 2013

Dear D Moore,

Thank you for your email of 29 January 2013 in which you asked for details on the Chief of Defence Materiel’s hotel stays and related guidance. Your email was logged as a new request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In particular, you asked for details of:

The Chief of Defence Materiel's publicly funded hotel stays in March 2012 including:  Permanent duty station;  Final duty station on day checked in;  Location of hotel;  Time of leaving final duty station on day of hotel visit;  Time and location of start duty next day.

Also detail of working hours policy for DE&S;

Lastly, a copy of your Department's rules governing use of hotels by civil servants.

The Chief of Defence Materiel had only one publicly funded hotel stay in March 2012. This was on the night of 29 February 2012 and he checked out on 1 March 2012. The additional details requested are:

 Permanent duty station: Ministry of Defence (MOD) Abbey Wood, Bristol  Final duty station on day checked in: Various military and industrial locations around La Spezia, Italy  Location of hotel: Grand Hotel Portovenere, Via Garibaldi 5, Portovenere 19025  Time of leaving final duty station on day of hotel visit: 22:00 (local)  Time and location of start duty next day: 08:30 (local), Luni Naval Air Force Base, Italy.

As requested, I enclose a copy of the MOD Policy, Rules and Guidance (PRG) document that covers working patterns. Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) staff are subject to this guidance, along with the rest of the Department.

Also enclosed are two documents which relate to MOD rules governing civilian use of hotels. The first is an extract from the MOD PRG related specifically to civilian detached duty expenses. The second is an extract from the overarching Joint Service Publication 752 (Tri-Service Regulations for Allowances), which covers both civil servants and service personnel. If you are not satisfied with this response or wish to complain about any aspect of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review by contacting the Deputy Chief Information Officer, 2nd Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [email protected]). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to an end.

If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Pauline Boardman

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