asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total annual cost of first-class rail travel for members of the Civil Service; how many persons are entitled to first-class fares; and what would be the saving if half of them travelled second class.

Expenditure on first-class rail travel is not readily identifiable in Departmental records, and an Answer to the first and the last parts of the Question would involve a disproportionate amount of work. Entitlement to first-class rail travel is granted to staff in grades above a certain level; it is estimated that the proportion of non-industrial civil servants so entitled is about one in twenty.