The corporate hospitality lavished on mandarins and their spouses was revealed in detail for the first time on Thursday, with IT suppliers and consultancy firms dominating the types of companies wining and dining senior civil servants.

An enviable list of social, sporting and cultural events features in the record of more than 1,700 items of hospitality accepted by senior civil servants in 2007 – the first time such details have been disclosed. Seven officials attended Wimbledon, four went to the BBC Proms, six to the theatre and seven to the opera.