KPMG is the accountancy profession’s most prolific winer and diner of Britain’s top civil servants, according to government records which lift the lid on the secretive lobbying industry.

KPMG entertained 35 senior Whitehall officials, followed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (29), Deloitte (25) and Ernst & Young (22), records published by the Cabinet Office have revealed.Grant Thornton entertained only two civil servants and Baker Tilly just one.

E&Y and KPMG provided hospitality to cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell and
Department for Business permanent secretary Sir Brian Bender.

E&Y took both men and their wives to Chelsea Flower Show, with two breakfast appointments with Sir Brian.

The firm’s flower show guests also included Home Office chief Sir David
Normington.

Deloitte lunched with Oliver Robbins, principal private secretary to the Prime
Minister and guardian of Gordon Brown’s inner sanctum.

KPMG took Robbins for dinner and bought him a drink.

The list of events attended by officials ranged from accepting a single drink
from commercial lobbyists to Ernst & Young providing ‘dinner and private viewing’ for Roger Marsh, director-general for strategic finance and operations in the
Cabinet Office.

The National Audit Office and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales spent money on schmoozing seven times each and the Audit Commission five.