§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what class of air ticket staff travel when travelling to and from posts abroad; and what assessment he has made of the relative costs to his Department of their travelling on(a) economy or excursion fares and (b) business class fares.
§ Mr. GoodladThe types of ticket to which diplomatic service officers and their families are entitled accord with guidance set by HM Treasury. Almost all officers on duty, transfer and mid-tour leave travel economy class on journeys of up to two and a half hours, and business class 411W for longer journeys. Very senior officers may travel in a higher class in certain circumstances, by virtue of their grade or for operational reasons: such cases amount to about 1.5 per cent. of total journeys. All other leave journeys and children's holiday visit passages, including journeys over two and a half hours, are by the cheapest means: economy or Apex fares.
We have not made an assessement of the relative cost of downgrading the class of travel, for example from business to economy class. Air fare pricing is constantly changing: our travel services contractor logs 1.6 million changes a day. We judge that the entitlements set by HM Treasury represent a reasonable balance of economy, operational needs, and comfort for the traveller.
The FCO constantly strives for greater value for money. We have agreements with a number of airlines which provide for substantial discounts, negotiated in partnership with our travel services contractors, with whom we also have a special arrangement to reduce cost.