Crumbs! Education spend £31 a week on biscuits

Tuesday 07 June 2016

A month after refusing to reveal their biscuit budget, the Education department has come clean – it’s £1,654.91 per year.

In one of the stranger Freedom of Information Law stories of the last two-and-a-half years, the department has revealed its biscuit budget for 2015 – along with what appear to be some fairly strict internal rules on biscuit access.

Last month, they declined to reveal how much they have spent on biscuits since 2010, saying that it would take them more than 12.5 hours to work it out.

But whoever it is that’s so interested in biscuit-linked public spending was not easily put-off, and narrowed the scope of their inquiries to spending in 2015. Education’s resistance to questioning fell apart like a soggy rich tea biscuit in the face of such sustained pressure, and coughed to £1,654.91 worth of spending last year, which works out at around £31 per week.

Their response also revealed that it’s not a complete confectionary free-for-all at the Education department.

They said: “Biscuits are distributed only for training, conferences, appeal boards, evaluation panels and other events within the Education Department and are used most regularly when hosting external agencies or people. 

“They are not distributed for the general use of Education Officers.

“However, we are unable to provide a more detailed analysis for spend across all Education Department sections and schools within the prescribed time limit.”