MoD hotel tab tops £98m

Government departments spent more than £120 million on hotels in two years, with the Ministry of Defence alone racking up a £98m bill, official figures show.

MoD staff stayed 396,076 nights in UK hotels at a cost of 65 million and 127,700 nights overseas at a cost of 33m between 2008 and 2010. This is the equivalent of 258 per night for accommodation abroad and 164 per night in Britain.

The MoD has recently come under fire over the cost of hotels for RAF personnel stationed in Italy as part of the Nato operation against Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi's regime in Libya.

After Freedom of Information requests, the Department of Transport revealed that it spent 6.1m on hotels, including nearly 9,000 on five-star accommodation, over the two-year period.

Other big-spending departments included the Ministry of Justice (11.2m) and the Department of Health (3.5m).