Government spending through its much-vaunted L-Cat super-panel has increased for the fourth year running as Whitehall presses on with a drive to centralise its legal procurement.

Provisional figures obtained by Legal Week from the Office for Government Commerce (OGC) show £14.5m in fees has been paid out to the 33-firm panel during the last 12 months – a rise of 10% on £13.3m last year. The increase is a more modest result than the previous year, which saw annual spending rocket by 100%.