Some of firms providing meals and tickets also among those to secure most meetings in key departments

• Analysis: Ministers must ask why they are offered freebies

Ministers, senior officials and special advisers were treated to hospitality including lunches, dinners, and sometimes tickets on about 3,500 occasions in five years, according to a new study.

Some of the firms that provided the hospitality were also among those to secure the most meetings in key government departments, underlining the potential benefit to offering “freebies”.