WILTSHIRE Police has shelled out thousand of pounds in putting up officers form other forces deployed to investigate poisonings in Salisbury.

The office of Wiltshire’s police and crime commissioner Angus Macpherson has published a list of all spending over £500 by month.

The lists for April and May show the huge range of things the police force buys or pays for – and demonstrates the huge impact of the investigations into the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury in spring, with £97,337 being spent on hotel bills near to the town.

Nearly £18,000 was spent with the Cafe on the Park in Salisbury for providing meals for officers on weekends through April and May.

But Mr Macpherson’s office says it is confident of getting those costs repaid, a spokesman said: “The hotels were for mutual aid officers, here from other forces.

“We subsequently started using barracks in Middle Wallop under agreement with the Army to reduce these costs. The PCC has been in frequent contact with the Home Office and fully expects all costs associated with the two major incidents to be recouped in full. We have so far reclaimed £6.6 million of the projected £10.2 million bill.”

Much of the spending is standard for a very large organisation like the county force – electricity bills, stationery, travel expenses, vehicle insurance and training courses.

But some items demonstrate the specific needs of policing. Dogs are an invaluable asset to officers – but they need feeding and housing. In April the force spent £913 on dog food and across the two months more than £5,100 was spent on kennels for the animals.

Another notable payment was a £5,000 contribution to the National Ugly Mugs project – which aims to help sex workers stay safe by advising them of known dangerous individuals.

The largest payment made in the first two months of the financial year was £516,471 made as Wiltshire’s contribution to the Black Rock centre, which provides training in firearms, public order, traffic policing and collision investigations and dog handling to officers from three neighbouring forces.

The force has spent £500,000 to use a firearms training facility in Portishead it shares with Avon & Somerset Police and Gloucestershire Constabulary.