Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, from which suppliers his Department acquires its tableware.

Tableware used in Foreign and Commonwealth Office UK staff restaurants is supplied by Bidfood Catering Equipment. The range used is manufactured by Steelite International, a UK pottery based in Stoke-on-Trent.

Government Hospitality (GH) arranges formal ministerial business hospitality for all government departments and orders, manages and maintains its own stock of china, glass and linen. The State Dinner Service used by GH is a Wedgwood design, originally commissioned in the 1950s. Other items of china tableware currently held in stock were manufactured by Minton, Royal Crown Derby, Royal Worcester and Spode.

Embassies manage their own stocks of tableware locally and no central record is held of suppliers.​