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PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Travel (6 December 2016)

Question Asked

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent on travel that was not standard class in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat)

Answer

The FCO's spending on non standard class travel is detailed in the table below as First class rail and Business class air travel. The data represents travel originating in the UK and booked through the Government's nominated travel agency.

First class rail

Business class air

2010/11

£38,081

£4,785,512

2011/12

£24,455

£5,167,379

2012/13

£19,724

£6,103,300

2013/14

£1,590

£5,421,348

2014/15

£3,057

£4,496,046

2015/16

£2,597

£4,629,774

2016/17 (to end November 2016)

£142

£2,011,741

FCO Policy is that public transport should be used whenever possible.

FCO staff travelling by air are required to book the lowest standard fare possible, subject to budget holder approval. As the FCO is present in over 170 countries there is a need for long distance travel, but FCO officials may fly business class only if the flight is ten hours or longer, although there are occasional exceptions to this rule.

All FCO staff are directed to use standard class for rail travel unless there are exceptional circumstances e.g. illness, disability or where First class facilities are essential for working while travelling. In these exceptional circumstances, prior line management approval must be given.


Answered by:
Sir Alan Duncan (Conservative)
14 December 2016

Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.