Civil servants spent thousands on four-star hotel bills

But the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) paid out far more on consultants and outsourced work, with IT, market research and advertising accounting for a large chunk of its budget.

The biggest amount, 69.87m, was paid to Airwave Solutions for mobile communications services for the nation's fire and rescue services.

The next largest payment was 21.76m to the Ordnance Survey mapping agency, followed by 17.29m to Land Securities Properties, the UK's largest commercial property company.

Details of 1,913 items of expenditure over 500 made by the core DCLG in 2009-10, totalling 314m, were published with a breakdown of another 337m of spending by the department's biggest quangos.

Among the eye-catching entries in the DCLG accounts are 12,948 for catering at Manchester United, 782 for an event at Exeter Racecourse, 2,500 for food provided by the Muslim Council of Great Britain and 500 spent at Majestic Wine Warehouse.

The Rubens at the Palace 4-star hotel, located opposite Buckingham Palace and around the corner from the DCLG offices, was clearly popular with the department's civil servants.

A total of 21,692 was spent there last year, made up of 16,959 for events, 1,999 on food, 932 for accommodation and 1,801.20 for "learning and development services". The department also spent 5,145 on an event at the 5-star Waldorf Hilton hotel in central London

Out of the 9.14m that went on "learning and development services", 13,450 was paid to the Quilliam Foundation, which was co-founded by former Islamists and describes itself as the world's first counter-extremism think tank.

Some 109,851 was spent on human resources consultancy, including 1,483 to a company called Psychology in Business (UK) Ltd.

And 31.2m went on research, including 4.38m to polling company Mori and 62,233 to the Board of Muslim Scholars.

The figures suggest that staff at the Home and Communities Agency have a taste for luxury hotels. The quango, which promotes affordable housing and community regeneration, spent 4,475 at the Hotel du Vin boutique chain and 4,552 at Malmaison hotels in 2009-10.

Another 5,003 went on stays at luxury 4-star spa retreats in the Shire Hotels group, while 2,826 was spent at Colwick Hall Hotel, a grade II* listed manor overlooking Nottingham racecourse.