§ Mrs. Spelman:To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which Ministers attended the World Trade Organisation meetings in Cancun; how many (a)advisers and (b)staff accompanied them; at which hotel Ministers and their advisers stayed in Cancun; what the total cost of (i) hotel rooms and (ii) expenses was; in which aeroplane class advisers attending the World Trade Organisation meetings in Cancun travelled; and what the total cost of their flights was. [129728]
§ Mr. Mike O'Brien:I have been asked to reply.
In addition to myself, my right hon. Friends, the Secretaries of State for Trade and Industry, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and my noble Friend, the Secretary of State for the International Development attended the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Cancun in September 2003. The length of stays varied.
We were accompanied by 32 civil servants from the five Government Departments involved and by five advisers from t he CBI, the TUC, NGO's and Parliament. Other Members of Parliament attended and assisted with advice.
Ministers and part of the delegation stayed in the Fiesta Americana Coral Beach Hotel, where the EU delegation and others were based. The remainder stayed at the Hotel Riu.
The majority of civil servants travelled via a European Commission charter flight, for which special discount fares were negotiated. Ministers were accompanied on their flights by a small team of support staff, some of whom travelled in the same class as Ministers.
Final accounts for the WTO ministerial are not currently available, and could be produced only at disproportionate cost at this stage. Once the costs have been finalised, we will inform the House.