§ Mr. FlightTo ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what the cost was to his Department for(a) ministerial cars and drivers, (b) taxis, (c) train travel, (d) the use of helicopters, (e) airline tickets and (f) chartered aeroplanes in each year since 1997. [123090]
§ Hilary BennAll official travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules contained in DFID's staff handbook. All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the "Ministerial Code" and "Travel by Ministers", copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
Information on the costs of categories (a) ministerial cars and drivers and (f) chartered planes, in respect of ministerial travel, is being provided centrally by the Cabinet Office in response to a parallel question. The detailed information requested for category (d) is not separately recorded and could be provided only at disproportionate cost but is likely to be small.
For category (b) DFID currently has two taxi contracts, with a combined cost for 2002 of £108,211. We do not hold central records of taxi costs paid to other companies and claimed for by individual members of staff.
For categories (c) and (e), for bookings made in the UK through DFID's HQ-based travel implant, the cost to DFID during the last three calndar years was:
Cost of rail and airline bookings £ 2000 2001 2002 Rail 265,00 308,000 346,000 Airlines 7.900,000 8,400,000 9,800,000 The figures for categories c) and e) do not include spending on travel by overseas offices, booked through an overseas travel agent: