Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the travel sections of his Department’s publications of government procurement card spending over £500, first published on 19 April 2021, whether the negative values up to a level of –£80,000 published in those sections reflect the refunds made to his Departmental budget in each month of amounts previously paid to (a) travel operators, (b) transport companies and (c) hotels.

Negative values set out in the Electronic Purchasing Card spend data published by the Ministry of Defence, which are associated with travel operators, transport companies and hotels, typically represent refunds from these providers.