§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Solicitor-General if she will make it her policy that rail journeys undertaken by staff in her Department should ordinarily be on standard class tickets. [40440]
§ The Solicitor-General[holding answer 7 March 2002]: In relation to my own Department, the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers and the Departments for which the Attorney General is responsible, section 8 paragraph 8.2.1 of the civil service management code requires Departments and agencies to ensure that staff use the most efficient and economic means of travel in the circumstances, taking into account any management benefit or the needs of staff with disabilities.
The Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers is fully committed to ensuring that staff use the most efficient and economic means of travel commensurate with meeting operational needs.
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service's travel and Subsistence policy already makes it clear that official travel should always be conducted in the most effective and economic manner and normally by public transport.
The main principles of the Crown Prosecution Service's travel and subsistence policy are:
No reimbursement is appropriate when no extra expense is incurred;All official journeys must be necessary, duly authorised, and undertaken in the most economical manner consistent with the efficient conduct of official business;Payment from public funds will normally be based on the cost of the journey by the most economical route and the most reasonable mode of conveyance;The Department may refuse claims for unreasonable expenses, or expenses which could have been avoided if the journey had been better planned.The Crown Prosecution Service grants entitlement to first class travel to all staff at Level C, Pay Bank C2/ Level B, Pay Band B3 and above. This entitlement is a contractual right that forms part of the terms and conditions of service for those Crown Prosecution Service staff members. On a number of occasions, the Department has considered the removal of this right but has withdrawn from that approach because of the cost associated with a buy-out of the contractual right.
Furthermore, staff entitled to standard class travel only, may be allowed to travel first class in the following circumstances:
When required to travel overnight;When necessarily travelling with a civil servant entitled to first class travel or a non-civil servant travelling first class;When the Department is satisfied that it is not practicable for the member of staff to obtain a seat in standard class.Treasury Solicitor's Department
It is departmental policy in the Treasury solicitor's Department that all staff, regardless of grade, must have full regard to the need for economy in travelling and must always consider using standard class on trains. Only more senior staff may travel using first class, though junior staff may accompany them if they need to work together during the journey.
518WSerious Fraud Office
It is departmental policy in the Serious Fraud Office that all staff, regardless of grade, must have full regard to the need for economy in travelling and must always travel standard class unless they can obtain better prices for first class travel, or there are compelling reasons not to travel standard class.