Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent on carbon offsetting in each of the last three years; and to which companies payments in respect of carbon offsetting were made in each such year.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) publishes the amount it sets aside for the purchase of Gold Standard Certified Emissions Reductions (CERS) each year in its Annual Statement of Accounts. Actual purchase of CERS is undertaken in the subsequent Financial Year (FY) through auction of the Government Carbon Offsetting Facility (GCOF).

In FY 2012/13 the FCO set aside £26,419. Actual expenditure was £10,139.16

In FY 2013/14 the FCO set aside £39,962. Actual expenditure was £25,010.92

In FY 2014/15 the FCO has set aside £31,972. GCOF auction is scheduled for 22 September 2015.

For FY 12/13 and FY 13/14 the supplier was EDF Trading Carbon Footprint Ltd. The supplier for FY 14/15 will not be known until the auction convenes later in September.