FOI request (FOI-66628885)

Under the Freedom of Information Act, please can you give me details on the amount of money spent hiring celebrities. They may have been hired to present awards, record video/audio clips, turn on Christmas lights, visit a local school or for any other purpose. 

Going back to May 6, 2014, please state: 

1) Which celebrity was hired to make an appearance 

2) What they were hired to do 

3) When they were hired 

4) How much they were paid 

5) Were they given anything in lieu of payment – eg night in a hotel, cab fares etc 

6) In some instances a celebrity may have asked the money be paid to charity. If you have a record of this, please say 

7) How long were they hired for?

In some instances the council may have given another body – eg the local chamber of commerce – money to hire the celebrity. Please include these within your response – the key thing is this is funded by the local authority. 

In our modern age, the definition of “celebrity” is open to many different interpretations. For the purpose of this FOI, a celebrity is not the local mayor. It is the local MP, it is anyone who has appeared on television, reality television, it is people in the media and it is a well-known authors (eg JK Rowling and not a self-published novelist). I hope that guidance assists.