Government credit card spending has leapt up from ￡155million in 2020-21 to ￡675m in 2024-25 (Image: Getty)
A crackdown on civil servant credit cards should end taxpayers bankrolling perks, including axe throwing, ice cream van hire and coffee. Thousands of government credit cards are to be cancelled under plans to cut spending and make sure taxpayers' money is targeted at delivering for the public.
The Cabinet Office is instructing departments and their agencies to freeze almost all of the approximately 20,000 Government Procurement Cards in circulation. Civil Service cardholders have just a few days left to reapply and justify why they need them. If they don't, then the cards will be cancelled by the end of the month. Costs on these cards had quadrupled in four years, leaping up from ￡155million in 2020-21 to ￡675m in 2024-25.
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Items on Government Procurement Card spending include ￡43,164 on equipment used to support working from home at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), as well as ￡500 to hire an ice-cream van for the Ministry of Justice.
A total of ￡2,258 was spent on an adventure park in Belgium by the Foreign Office and ￡1,273.50 on Nespresso at the Cabinet Office, according to the figures cited by the Telegraph.
They also show that Defra spent ￡1,700 on a public speaking training service used by the Environment Agency and the same department spent ￡906 at a Zizzi restaurant in Manchester.
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The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) spent ￡4,107 at the Kitano Hotel in Tokyo; ￡603 at an Indian restaurant in Chelsea and ￡1,046 on catering from a four star hotel in Westminster.
Before Christmas, the Home Office spent ￡858 at Myers Briggs, a personality test company, and ￡795 at One Pound Lane, a former prison in Canterbury where guests can enjoy "bottomless Organic Prosecco" and burgers.
Staff at the Ministry of Justice last year visited an activity centre in Yorkshire where activities included volleyball, axe-throwing, quad biking, clay pigeon shooting and archery. The department spent ￡500 on Super Soft Ices, a company providing ice cream vans for weddings and corporate events.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office spent ￡8,000 at the KL Tower in Kuala Lumpur as well as ￡6,914 at swanky Fortnum and Mason, ￡10,360 at John Lewis and ￡4,059 at M&S.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the department was "fully focused on wasteful spending and inefficiency across government". He said the department is carrying out huge reforms and "fundamentally changing" how public services and civil servants deliver for the UK.
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Pat McFadden says the clampdown on Government credit cards will deliver savings (Image: Getty)
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Overall, the crackdown forms part of a civil service-wide efficiency drive to cut down on wasteful spending across government. This includes making it quicker and easier to remove poor performers from post.
While some credit cards are operationally necessary to deliver services, the amount spent on them has more than quadrupled in the past four years with spending in the last financial year reaching over ￡600million in central departments and core agencies.
Tighter new spending controls are also being introduced, with the maximum spend for hospitality slashed from ￡2,500 to ￡500. Any spend over ￡500 will require approval from the Civil Service's Director General.
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Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said when the crackdown was announced: "We must ensure taxpayers' money is spent on improving the lives of working people.
"It's not right that hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on Government credit cards each year, without high levels of scrutiny or challenge. Only officials for whom it is absolutely essential should have a card.
"Our clampdown on Government credit cards will deliver savings that can be used to drive our Plan for Change - securing our borders, getting the NHS back on its feet and rebuilding Britain."