HC Deb 10 July 2003 vol 408 cc957-9W
Mr. Flight

To ask the Solicitor-General what the cost was to her Department for(a) ministerial cars and

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 12002
(b) Taxis 19,903 9,466 10,945 15,537 20,920 17,655
(c) Trains 50,961 46,681 62,089 74,168 100,051 99,402
(e) Airline tickets 68,692 37,062 83,625 152,990 139,904 86,713
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HM Crown Prosecution Service Directorate

HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate does not keep separate accounts in these areas and costs are included in the figures provided by the Crown Prosecution Service and the Treasury Solicitor's DepartmentߞCrown Prosecution Service as a part of their overall accounts for 1997 to 2001 and Treasury Solicitor's Department from 2002 onwards.

Treasury Solicitor's Department

The accounting system operated by the Treasury Solicitor's Department does not hold the information at the detailed level requested.

drivers, (b) taxis, (c) train travel, (d) the use of helicopters, (e) airline tickets and (f) chartered aeroplanes in each year since 1997. [123089]

The Solicitor-General

[holding answer 4 July 2003]:

Crown Prosecution Service

The cost to the Crown Prosecution Service of train travel and airline tickets in each year since 1997 was as follows:

£000
Train travel Airline tickets
1997–98 483 29
1998–99 583 25
1999–2000 770 39
2000–01 742 77
2001–02 1,153 151
2002–03 1,517 166

The Crown Prosecution Service does not separately record expenditure on taxis which could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The costs of taxis are, however, included with other miscellaneous travel expenditure and the aggregate cost of such expenditure is given as follows:

£000
1997–98 68
1998–99 70
1999–2000 72
2000–01 90
2001–02 148
2002–03 189

Serious Fraud Office

The Serious Fraud Office has not incurred any expenditure providing transport for Ministers and has not used Ministerial cars, helicopters or chartered planes.

Expenditure on the other items is detailed below for each financial year since 1997:

The Department allocates its travel costs between costs incurred in the United Kingdom and abroad, and separately records the cost of Ministerial cars. So far as the Department's records show, the Department has not made use of helicopters or chartered planes since 1997.

The Department's transport costs for each year since 1997 were:

Year ending 31 March (a) Ministerial cars and drivers Transport in the United Kingdom Foreign travel
1997 123,600 8,000 5,800
1998 234,600 18,500 21,400
1999 118,500 47,200 29,200
2000 70,000 55,000 15,000

Year ending 31 March (a) Ministerial cars and drivers Transport in the United Kingdom Foreign travel
2001 59,300 61,800 26,000
2002 109,800 154,800 28,200
2003 122,500 134,700 62,300

The budget for my own department, the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers, is administered by the Treasury Solicitor's Department and the figures given by the Treasury-Solicitor's Department include costs incurred by the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers.