Wiltshire Council spent almost £60k on Amazon in a year

Wiltshire Council spent almost £60k on Amazon in a year, according to its corporate credit card spending records.

Pandora, Disney Plus, PureGym, Smyths Toys and Thermae Bath Spa were also among the list of vendors.
The transaction data shows that £628,163.90 was expensed in total in the year starting September 2022, which is the most recent full year of data publicly available.

Of that amount, £58,227.89 was spent on Amazon.

Amazon’s main UK division paid no corporation tax in 2022 for the second year in a row, thanks to government tax breaks. The company has also faced criticism over its labour practices, including reports of poor working conditions and high injury rates.

Over the course of the analysed year, Wiltshire Council’s largest single transaction carried out was £20,700 at Aldi on July 20, 2023, and a total of £6,440.2 was spent on Tesco gift cards.

The most expensive accommodation booking that year cost the council £6282.

£34,568 was spent at UK Visas and Immigration, the division of the Home Office responsible for the visa system.

These transactions are typical for local authorities to assist in the resettlement of refugees.
Other purchases published within the datasets are considered official business, which includes procuring goods and services for the local authority’s operation. The cardholders included in the data have a reference number, but their name has been redacted.

Details of Wiltshire Council’s corporate credit card spending are published by the local authority on its website.

Cllr Nick Botterill, cabinet member for finance, said: “As a local authority there is a variety of services we provide where employees may need to use a corporate credit card to purchase goods or services.
“This is to enable service delivery and are not ‘expensed’ for personal benefit which is not permitted in any circumstance. We have strict procedures and checks in place to ensure corporate credit cards are used appropriately.”

According to the council, goods from Amazon are purchased occasionally when one-off items are required that cannot be provided under an established contract.For example, goods to set up care leavers for independent living.

This type of transaction would fall under Wiltshire Council’s role as “corporate parents.”