Image problem Public bodies showed little interest in free Charles portrait

It was a celebratory multimillion-pound scheme to mark the beginning of Charles III's reign. Free portraits of the king were sent to any town hall, university, hospital and even jobcentre that wanted one.

- Robert Booth

The initiative would provide "a reminder of the example set by our ultimate public servant", said the then Conservative deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden.

But now the government is shy about where exactly any of the images of the king ended up after it admitted more than 46,000 institutions showed no interest.

In what has been described as an "absurd" decision about a scheme to distribute large portraits to be hung in public view, it is refusing to say which schools, hospitals and jobcentres did request them, saying it could "give rise to controversy" and create "negative public perception".

Over £2.7m was spent meeting requests for the pictures and while take-up was patchy, more than 20,000 images of Charles in a medal-laden Royal Navy uniform were sent out - a 31% hit rate. But the reluctance to reveal where they ended up has emerged from a Guardian freedom of information request, which the Cabinet Office has been resisting for months.

Last October it rejected the request for the information by arguing disclosure would be an "actionable breach of confidence". In effect it implied a public authority that requested a portrait of the king to display in public might sue the government for revealing that it had done so.