The department receives a special appropriation to provide modest hospitality to school groups visiting Parliament House. School visits are coordinated by the Serjeant-at- Arms’ Office, working in partnership with the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) and Visitor Services. In 2015–16 the administered appropriation for the schools hospitality activity was $0.324 million, and expenditure (including accrued expenses) was $0.317 million. Results against the performance criteria for the activity are summarised in Appendix 1. Staff levels, by location, are shown in Appendix 2.

Schools hospitality

In 2015–16 there was a decrease in the number of school students participating in educational tours of Parliament House, with 115,744 students recorded—down from 120,216 in the previous year. The number of students from the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales decreased; all other states recorded higher numbers than in the previous financial year (see Table 8).

Table 8 Students visiting Parliament House, by location and year, 2011–12 to 2015–16

All students visiting in 2015–16 participated in a guided tour and visited both chambers, 82 per cent (95,006) received hospitality and 76 per cent (89,087) participated in a PEO program.

Improving performance

From July 2015, bookings were taken on a rolling monthly basis for the following two calendar years. This new process was developed in conjunction with stakeholders to bring our booking schedule into line with the national cultural and educational institutions on the visits program and has been well received.

Outlook

By 30 June 2016, we had booked 106,775 students from 1,671 schools for the following 12 months. Last year at the same time we had 103,380 students booked from 1,578 schools.

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