WIREDGOV

Accusations that officials at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence have used credit cards on luxury hotels and champagne bars are reported in the Daily Mail.

The paper says that officials at NICE have “racked up £115,000 on taxpayer-funded credit cards in the past two and a half years, including £5,000 on luxury hotels”.

What do NICE staff use credit cards for?

Some senior staff have access to corporate credit cards for use on official business. They are mainly used to pay for hotel accommodation but can also be used to meet travel costs, for meals and other incidental expenditure. Senior procurement staff also have access to a card to purchase goods and services that cannot be paid for by any other means.

NICE's chief executive, Sir Andrew Dillon, explains: "NICE has not spent money in champagne bars and the hotels used outside the UK were selected on the basis of the business requirements of the work involved."

The journalist at the Mail has wrongly concluded that payments to Searcy's were made at its high profile champagne bar. But the company also provides conference and meeting rooms. Searcy's manages room hire at the Royal College of GPs and the Commonwealth Club where NICE holds meetings. The money was spent on venues, not champagne.

Sir Andrew added:

“The small number of official credit cards used by senior members of staff at NICE are used exclusively for business purposes and are subject to strict guidelines. Expenditure is checked and approved and is subject to internal and external audit. Our travel, expenses and hospitality policies are set at levels which are consistent with other public bodies and along with the details of the expenditure, are open to public scrutiny. We provide appropriate access to the expenditure incurred, via our website and in response to requests.”

When the Daily Mail asked for information about credit card expenditure, it was told in advance that the information was being put on NICE's website and would be sent a link to it. The paper then asked for a general comment from NICE but was not specific about what it wished us to refer to. It asked about the Searcy's items but did not give us sufficient time to respond before going to print, wrongly accusing NICE of refusing to comment.

Sir Andrew wrote to the Mail:

“Sir - NICE doesn't spend public money in champagne bars (Daily Mail front page Saturday, 11 January). Had you asked and given us the time to respond we could have made that clear.

We use the public money entrusted to us carefully, not just because of our responsibility to advise the NHS on the effective and cost effective use of treatments, but because it's rightly what we are expected to do. All the expenditure you refer to was committed appropriately.

You have a right, you might say a duty to examine how public bodies spend their money. But if you're going to do it, you should do so with due care and attention. You haven't done so in this case and as a consequence you've both misled the public and damaged our reputation.”

How your money was spent

The Mail lists a number of payments: