§ Mr. BakerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will estimate the cost of employee travel on office business, broken down into(a) fuel allowances, (b) unproductive time during travel, (c) other costs related to car transport and (d) costs related to public transport, for (i) 1994–95, (ii) 1995–96, (iii) 1996–97 and (iv) 1997–98. [32437]
§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths[holding answer 3 March 1998]: The authorisation of travel claims for DTI staff is devolved to local management subject to checking procedures and within allocated budgets. It does not record expenditure on fuel allowances, travel time, other costs related to car transport and costs related to public transport separately from other travel and subsistence expenses paid to staff undertaking departmental business. To provide the information requested would entail disproportionate cost. It would not be possible to measure unproductive travel time.