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Departmental Travel

Answer

[holding answer given 24 January 2008]: DEFRA came into being in June 2001. The information requested for each year since 1997 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.Since 1999, the Government have published a list of all overseas travel by Cabinet Ministers costing over £500. Information for the last financial year was published on 25 July 2007. Details for the current financial year will be published as soon as possible after the end of the current financial year. From next year, the list will include details of overseas visits undertaken by all Ministers. All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial code.All central Government ministerial and official air travel has been offset from 1 April 2006. Departmental aviation emissions are calculated on an annual basis and subsequently offset through payments to a central fund. The fund purchases certified emissions reductions credits from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with sustainable development benefits, located in developing countries. In addition, offsetting the flights of DEFRA, the FCO, the DfID and the Prime Minister has been backdated to 1 April 2005. DEFRA has offset rail and vehicle travel since 2006 and 2007 respectively.For the period April 2006 to December 2007 inclusive from information held centrally, the miles officials travelled by rail and air are:

Officials’ miles
	Rail	Air
2007
October to December	821,091	1,369,877
July to September	324,962	579,196
April to June	153,808	156,506
January to March	846,942	1,202,971
2006
October to December 2006	711,689	946,247
July to September 2006	685,881	1,303,289
April to June 2006	794,269	1,314,444

From information held centrally, the car mileage travelled by officials since financial year 2002-03 is:

	Miles
2006-07	19,717,612
2005-06	22,618,001
2004-05	20,726,000
2003-04	20,381,000
2002-03	20,510,000

These figures include 50,522 miles for ministerial cars in 2006-07 and taxi mileages of 137,005 and 47,000 in 2006-07 and 2005-06 respectively. Information on car mileage includes where known data for core-DEFRA, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aqua-cultural Science, the Government Decontamination Service, the State Veterinary Service, the Marine Fisheries Agency, the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, the Central Science Laboratory, the Rural Payments Agency and the Pentacles Safety Directorate. Year-on-year figures are not strictly comparable due to the machinery of government changes that have affected DEFRA since its creation in June 2001, and from changes to departmental financial systems.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

471 c75-6W; 181876

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Travel

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk