Departments are to be measured on how well their spending supports government policies such as reducing youth unemployment, the government has announced.

Treasury minister Liam Byrne has called for the £220bn that public authorities spend on goods and services to be used to "help lock in the recovery" from the economic downturn.

As well as using suppliers who employ apprentices and are helping to boost youth employment and training, departments are expected to use their spending to help reduce carbon emissions, and to support small and medium-sized businesses.

In the next few months, procurement officials will have to start providing figures to the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in order to show that their spending is promoting these three government policies.

An OGC document published today, 'Policy through Procurement', says the measures will include the value of contracts awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises, the number of young unemployed people given work thanks to a government contract, and the number of suppliers who have agreed to disclose their carbon emissions.