Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times retrospective permission for spending has been (a) requested and (b) granted by his Department in each year since 2010.

In the vast majority of cases the necessary approvals are sought in advance. Though retrospective approvals do sometimes occur, a central record is not kept of the numbers. It would therefore require disproportionate resources to fully gather the required information‎.