The Cabinet Office will order almost all of the 20,000 procurement cards used by civil servants to be frozen.
Government records show civil servants spent taxpayer money on celebrity cardboard cut-outs, a Bahamas yacht club and Fortnum and Mason.
The move comes after Sir Keir Starmer vowed to reshape the “flabby” state and slash the cost of bureaucracy.
Some civil servants need the cards to deliver services for Government departments and agencies.
Fortnum and Mason’s and sparkling wine
Cards from the Foreign Office were used to spend £2,400 at Cumbria Crystal, where a set of four Grasmere wine glasses costs £500.
There was £1,400 spent on Fortnum and Mason goods (Photo: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)And £810 was spent on a Home Office staff team-building exercise at an escape room in Kent, £872 on trophies for an awards ceremony, and £623 spenyt by the Foreign Office on tickets to the South By South West music and tech festival in Sydney.
Spending at private members’ clubs included £2,240 at The British Club in Thailand, £975 at London’s Reform Club and £940 at The Kildare Street and University Club in Dublin, where members are banned from talking to the press.
It has also been reported that more than £670 was spent in 2023 on a website that sells life-size cardboard cut-outs of celebrities including the late Queen, King Charles, Harry and Boris Johnson.
What will the spending cap be?
New spending controls will bring down the maximum spend for hospitality from £2,500 to £500, with anything over the new limit requiring approval from the director general.
Cards used by diplomatic staff in unstable environments will be among a small number exempt from the freeze.
New application process
It is expected the number of cards will be reduced by at least 50 per cent, according to the Government.
“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.”
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