Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Greening Government Commitments Annual Report, April 2019 to March 2020, published in October 2021 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason there was an increase in the number of domestic flights taken by her Department between 2009-10 and 2019-20; and if she will provide a breakdown by (a) origin and (b) destination of those flights in 2019-20.

The increase in domestic flights taken by DCMS officials in 2019/20 compared to 2009/10 can be explained by the following:

• The department is less London centric, increasing its presence across the UK.

• The department has increased in size from 454 FTE in 2009/10 to 1,304 FTE in 2019/20, a 187% increase. The increase in FTE is contributed to by the increased remit of the department, specifically within digital and international policy.

A total of 246 domestic flights were taken by DCMS officials between April 2019 and March 2020, to attend external meetings and conferences.

A breakdown of the flight data, detailing the origin and destination of flights taken in 2019/20 can be found in the attached PDF.