Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department spent on carbon offsetting in each of the last three years; and to which companies payments in respect of carbon offsetting were made in each such year.

In 2012/13 the Department spent £91,284 on carbon offsetting costs. In 2013/14 the figure was £82,950 and in 2014/15 £180,814. The spend figure for 2014/15 is higher than in previous years as the Department also purchased offsetting allowances for future years at a reduced rate, using the Carbon Reduction Commitment schemes newly introduced forecast auction option.

All payments were made to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Department of Energy and Climate Change under the Carbon Reduction Commitment energy efficiency scheme, with the exception of £741 paid to Carbon Footprint Ltd in 2014/15 and £161 to EDF in 2013/14 under the Government Carbon Offsetting Facility scheme.