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News
UK government spends £45k on wine
The UK government spent more than £45,000 on wine last year, according to a statement from Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds.
Govenment Hospitality Cellar: Photo Credit: Christie’s Images 2013
In total £45,866 was spent on wine in 2012/13, which is a slight decrease on £48,955 the previous year.
But the government did say that it was auctioning off some of the wine in its cellar and in total sold £63,300 of wine at auction in 2012/13, a 50% increase in sales revenue from the previous year.
The figures also showed that other government departments contributed a total of £22,129 to the cellar’s funds.
In a written ministerial statement Mr Simmonds said: “The wine cellar is now self-funding through the sale of some high-value stock and payments made by other government departments to government hospitality.”
English wine proved the most popular in the cellar accounting for 49% of consumption by volume.
Should the UK government not be spending that money on its citizens instead of purchasing wine?