§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the(a) percentage and number of rail journeys undertaken on first class tickets, (b) average cost of a first class journey by rail and (c) total cost of rail travel in each of the past four years broken down by grade of civil servant. [37495]
§ Ms Hewitt(a) The departmental travel agent arranged 16,616 first class rail journeys in 2001. This represents 60 per cent. of the journeys arranged by them. They do not, however, arrange all the department's rail journeys.
(b) The average cost of those first class journeys, booked as above, was £113.(c) The DTI does not record cost of rail travel by grade of civil servant separately from other data on travel expenses paid for staff undertaking departmental business. To provide the information requested would entail disproportionate cost.