Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much his Department spent on first class train travel for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in (i) 2020, (i) 2021 and (iii) 2022.

There are important official reasons for ministers and civil servants to travel across the country. Reflecting this department’s responsibilities for local government, housing, planning, and communities across England, and our wider responsibilities across the whole of the United Kingdom, our work inevitably involves staff travelling to different parts of the country.

Further to a written answer given by this department in 2015, in 2009-10 this department spent over £216,000 on first class rail travel.

A yearly breakdown of first class train travel spend is below. There will be business cases for such travel, including on occasion security, but we have significantly reduced costs compared to the last Labour Government. For example the 2022 level was well below 10% of the 2009-10 level in cash terms.

2020 - Civil Servants £9,735

2020 - Ministers £1,135

2021 - Civil Servants £4,731

2021 - Ministers £1,132

2022 - Civil Servants £12,135

2022 - Ministers £3,119

Figures are likely reduced in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since 2010, the Department has taken on responsibility for residual functions of the Government Offices for the Regions, and other agencies. As these business functions relate to work in areas outside London, this may have increased the business need for travel. Overall, we have still managed to reduce travel costs through better procurement and tighter management controls on costs, and reduced overall costs through closing unnecessary public bodies.