§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 7 December,Official Report, column 265, about his Department's spending on air travel, what categories of people travel (a) first class, (b) business club class or (c) economy.
§ Mr. GoodladMinisters on official business travel first class. If this is not available, they travel business class. FCO officials accompanying Ministers who have work to transact with their Ministers during the flight travel in the same class.
On flights of two and a half hours or less, all other FCO officials of assistant under-secretary level and above on official business travel business class. All other staff travel economy class. On flights of more than two and a half hours, officials of permanent secretary level are entitled to first-class travel. All others travel business class.
As a rule, Queen's messengers travel business class. Where only economy and first class are available, they take the higher class.