HC Deb 15 February 1999 vol 325 cc583-4W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the mileage rates currently applicable to staff, indicating what changes have been made to encourage staff to switch from cars to public transport and other less polluting forms of travel. [70939]

Mr. Fatchett

The information is as follows:

FCO staff are entitled to claim the following mileage rates, expressed in pence per mile
Pence per mile
Private cars
Public Transport rate (for duty travel in the United Kingdom) 24.8
Standard rate (for duty travel when official or public transport is not readily available) Up to 4,000 miles per year 39.5
Over 4,000 miles per year 22
Leave rate (for travel to or from Overseas Posts on leave or compassionate or serious domestic hardship journeys) 16.3
Motor cycles
Public Transport rate only
Up to 4,000 miles per year 18.5
Over 4,000 miles per year 7.5
Cylces
Public Transport rate only 5.6

The FCO will comply with published Government targets to have green transport plans, aimed at promoting greener travel, in place for its London headquarters estate by 31 March 1999 and for its provincial site by 31 March 2000. The practical measures which will be identified in the FCO's green transport plan do not currently include a review of mileage rates.

Mr. Chaytor

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the total number of staff(a) in his Department and (b) in each of the agencies for which he is responsible and their location in (i) London, (ii) Wales, (iii) Scotland and (iv) each of the English regions. [70479]

Mr. Fatchett

I refer my hon. Friend to "Civil Service Statistics 1998", which is placed in the Libraries of the House.

Mr. Chaytor

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he has taken to relocate staff in(a) his Department and (b) the agencies for which he is responsible to the regions of the United Kingdom with the highest levels of unemployment; and what plans he has further to decentralise the location of his Department and its agencies. [70465]

Mr. Fatchett

The FCO has under three and a half thousand staff working in the UK at any one time—in central London, Croydon and Milton Keynes. We have no plans for decentralisation. The FCO also has a small Agency, Wilton Park Conference Centre, in Sussex.

The British Council moved part of its HQ to Manchester in 1992; it also has offices in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and regional officers in a number of cities around the UK.

The BBC World Service is based in Central London, except for BBC Monitoring, which is based in Reading.