Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much his Department spent on government procurement card purchases (a) above and (b) below £500 net of refunded payments in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023.

Government Procurement Cards provide an efficient route to enable key staff to procure goods and services, necessary to the promotion of British interests overseas and the maintenance of our embassies and high commissions. All purchases are subject to authorisation by managers and audit checks.

The FCDO publishes £500+ spend on gov.uk, and the monthly breakdown can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fcdo-spending-over-500.

With regards to sub-£500 spend, the total for 2022 is £13,434,713, and for 2023 is £15,106,232. To note, the total value of refunds in the period has been deducted from the total value of purchases in the period in the data presented; some refunds may relate to purchases in the previous period.