Whitehall departments write off 600m of taxpayers’ cash as ‘fruitless spending’

The A 600 million total was calculated by the Scottish National Party from Freedom of Information requests and annual departmental accounts Government departments have written off A 600 million of taxpayers’ money as “fruitless spending” over the past decade, according to new figures. The sums include a A 103 million loss on Chinook military helicopters which did not meet operational requirements in 2010/11, A 89.3 million on compensation to contractors after the Flexible New Deal was scrapped the same year and A 27 million in relation to an office move for the Communities Department in 2013/14.