§ Sir Donald Kaberryasked the Secretary of State for Energy how many Ministers in his Department have made journeys abroad; if he will specify the number of separate occasions (a) to EEC countries and (b) to overseas countries outside the EEC within the 12 months to 30 June; how many staff of his Department and others accompanied the individual Minister on each occasion; what was the overall cost on each occasion in respect of travel, subsistence and other expenditure involved; how many days were occupied on each visit; what was the object of each journey; and how many such visits are now planned to be undertaken from 1 July to 31 December.
§ Mr. David HowellAt present about eight visits are planned up to the end of 1980. The information requested by my hon. Friend is as follows:
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MINISTERIAL VISITS TO EEC COUNTRIES Minister Others in party Overall cost (£) (Travel, Subsidence, etc) Date of visit (No. of days) Purpose and country of visit Mr Howell 2 £784 16 July 1979 (1) Energy Council meeting—Belgium Mr Howell and Mr Lamont 4 £1,036 20 September 1979 (1) Energy Council meeting—Belgium Mr Howell 4 £835 25–26 September 1979 (2) Meeting of Energy Minister—France Mr Lamont 4 £700 20–23 October 1979 (4) EEC Research Council—Luxembourg Mr Lamont 3 £714 3–4 December 1979 (2) Energy Council meeting—Belgium Mr Howell 6 £1,854 9–14 December 1979 (6) IEA Ministerial meeting—France Mr Lamont 3 £885 19–21 December 1979 (3) EEC Council of Ministers—Belgium Mr Lamont 3 £175 8–9 January 1980 (2) Visit to Gravelines power station—France Mr Howell 5 £1,103 13 May 1980 (1) Energy Council meeting—Belgium Mr Howell 3 not available 2–4 June 1980 (3) Ministerial visit—W. Germany MINISTERIAL VISITS TO COUNTRIES OTHER THAN EEC Mr Gray 1 £1,378 14–21 July 1979 (8) Ministerial visit—USSR Mr Moore 2 £3,683 8–14 September 1979 (7) Visits to coal technology installations—USA Mr Gray 2 £1,203 12–13 September 1979 (2) Official visit—Norway Mr Howell 3 £4,469 27 September–2 October 1979 (6) Official visit—USA Mr Howell 2 £1,712 4–7 October 1979 (4) OPEC seminar—Austria Mr Howell 8 £3,462 15–17 October 1979 (3) UK/Norway co-ordinating committee—Norway Mr Lamont 5 £4,479 23–31 October 1979 (9) UK/USSR energy symposium—USSR Mr Howell 3 £2,911 4–11 January 1980 (8) Promotion of trade and oil discussions—Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Mr Lamont 1 £2,460 3–9 February 1980 (7) Discussions with US State and Energy Depts.—USA Mr Gray 1 £760 6–8 February 1980 (3) Energy seminar—Norway Mr Gray 3 £5,649 2–8 May 1980 (7) Offshore technology conference—USA Mr Lamont 1 £949 14–16 June 1980 (3) Industrial atomic forum conference—Sweden