Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Travel
(asked on 6th December 2016) - View Source
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent on travel that was not standard class in each of the last five years.
The FCO's spending on non standard class travel is detailed in the table below as First class rail and Business class air travel. The data represents travel originating in the UK and booked through the Government's nominated travel agency.
| First class rail | Business class air |
2010/11 | £38,081 | £4,785,512 |
2011/12 | £24,455 | £5,167,379 |
2012/13 | £19,724 | £6,103,300 |
2013/14 | £1,590 | £5,421,348 |
2014/15 | £3,057 | £4,496,046 |
2015/16 | £2,597 | £4,629,774 |
2016/17 (to end November 2016) | £142 | £2,011,741 |
FCO Policy is that public transport should be used whenever possible.
FCO staff travelling by air are required to book the lowest standard fare possible, subject to budget holder approval. As the FCO is present in over 170 countries there is a need for long distance travel, but FCO officials may fly business class only if the flight is ten hours or longer, although there are occasional exceptions to this rule.
All FCO staff are directed to use standard class for rail travel unless there are exceptional circumstances e.g. illness, disability or where First class facilities are essential for working while travelling. In these exceptional circumstances, prior line management approval must be given.