To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list (a) details of all overseas trips made by him, or ministerial colleagues in his Department, paid for wholly or partly from public funds and (b) the purpose, destination and duration of such overseas trips, which officials accompanied him and the total cost in each case, including that of officials, to public funds for each year since 1992. [32262]

[holding answer Monday 10 July 1995]:During the period in question, Ministers in my Department have carried out the following overseas visits:

Secretary of State for Defence
Date	Destination	Purpose	Aircraft type
Financial year 1993–94
April
20 to 23	USA	To represent Her Majesty's Government at opening of Holocaust Museum, and to have bilateral talks	Civil
May
16 to 21	Far East (Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore)	Bilaterals	RAF
25	Belgium (Brussels)	NATO Ministerial Meeting	RAF
August
2 to 4	Bosnia/Croatia, Italy	To visit British Forces in Bosnia nad Croatia, and for bilateral talks in Croatia and Italy	RAF
September
19 to 24	CIS (Russia and Ukraine)	Bilaterals	RAF
October
20 to 21	Germany (Travemunde)	NATO Ministerial meeting
22	Germany (Bielefeld)	To visit British Forces	RAF
23 to 24	Germany (Bonn)	To participate in Bertelsmann Forum
24 to 26	France	Bilateral
November
21 to 22	Austria (Vienna)	Anglo-German Summit	RAF
25	Germany (Bonn)	NATO Ministerial	RAF
December
8 to 9	Belgium (Brussels)	NATO Ministerial	RAF
January
5 to 10	Far East Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, (Bahrain)	Bilateral discussions	RAF
February
4	Germany (Laarbruch, Bruggen)	To visit British Forces	RAF
5	Germany	Conference on Security Policy	RAF
6 to 7	Italy/Former Yugoslavia	To visit British Forces	RAF
10 to 11	Sweden	Bilateral	RAF
19 to 20	Italy	Visit British Forces	RAF
March
17 to 18	Former Yugoslavia	Visit to British Forces	RAF
22	Norway	Engagement with the King of Norway	RAF
23	Netherlands	Bilateral	RAF

Secretary of State for Defence
Date	Destination	Purpose	Aircraft type
Financial year 1994–95
April
1 to 5	Nepal	To visit British Forces	RAF
12 to 15	USA	Bilateral	Civil
May
5 to 8	Bermuda	To visit British Forces	RAF
9	Luxembourg	WEU Ministerial	RAF
23 to 25	Belgium (Brussels)	NATO Ministerial meeting	RAF
26	USA	Witness missile firing	RAF
27 to 28	Belize	To visit British Forces	RAF
June
2 to 3	Switzerland	Bilateral	RAF
6	France	D Day	RAF
September
8	Germany	Berlin commemorations	RAF
11	Denmark	Bilateral	RAF
28 to 30	Spain	NATO Ministerial	RAF
October
2 to 5	Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)	Bilateral	RAF
20 to 24	Israel	Bilateral	RAF
24 to 25	Jordan/Kuwait	Bilateral	RAF
28	Germany	To attend BAOR drawdown parade	RAF
30 to 1 November	USA	Bilateral	RAF
November
18	France	Summit	RAF
December
5 to 6	Former Yugoslavia	Visit to British Forces	RAF
13 to 14	Belgium (Brussels)	NATO Ministerial	RAF
January
16 to 18	Middle East (Saudi Arabia Abu Dhabi, Dubai)	Bilateral talks	RAF
February
3	Germany	Visit German Forces	RAF
4 to 5	Germany (Munich)	Security Policy Conference	RAF
12 to 15	Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia	Bilateral talks	RAF
March
2 to 5	USA	Quadrilateral meeting	Civil
Financial year 1995–96
April
7 to 13	Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe	Bilaterals	RAF— £133,404
28 to 30	Germany	Ditchley Foundation Conference	RAF— £6,796
May
14 to 15	Portugal	WEU Ministerial	RAF—£4,970
June
3	France	Ministerial meeting	RAF—£3,271

Secretary of State for Defence
Date	Destination	Purpose	Aircraft type
June 8 to 9	Brussels	NATO Ministerial meeting	RAF— £2,782
12 to 13	Sweden and Finland	Bilateral	RAF—£5,594
19 to 21	USA	Bilateral and WEU Conference	Civil

Minister for the Armed Forces
Date	Destination	Purpose	Aircraft type
Financial Year 1993–94
5–9 April	Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia	Bilaterals	RAF
13–15 May	Germany	Visit British Forces	RAF
19 May	Rome	WEU Ministerial meeting	Civil
26 July	Luxembourg	WEU Ministerial meeting	RAF
28–30 July	Germany	Visit British Forces	RAF
13–16 September	Italy, Bosnia and Croatia	Visit British Forces	RAF
20–29 September	Belize, USA and Brazil	Visit British Forces, Prime Minister and members of Belizean government, meetings with members of the US administration	Civil
12–14 October	Hungary	Bilaterals	RAF
15–18 November	Cyprus, Gibraltar, Sardinia	Meet British Forces and Chief Minister, Gibraltar	RAF
Financial Year 1994–95
23 February	Brussels	Visit SHAPE Headquarters	RAF
13–15 June	Bosnia	Visit British Forces	RAF
30 June-1 July	Norway	HQ AFNORTH closure ceremony	RAF
19 August	Brussels	Represent UK at Mandred Worner's funeral	RAF
1 September	Germany	Visit British Forces	RAF
4–8 September	Oman	Bilaterals	Civil
26–28 September	Bosnia	Visit British Forces	RAF
1–7 October	Hong Kong Brunei	Visit British troops and Bilaterals	Civil
7–10 November	Cyprus Gibraltar	Visit British troops	RAF
5 December	Germany	Bilaterals	RAF
3–6 January	Bahrain	Anglo Bahrain Defence Committee and Bilaterals	Civil
25 January	Furstenfoldbruck, Germany	British/German Peacekeeping seminar	RAF
28–29 February	Norway	Visit British Forces on NATO Exercise	RAF
15 March	Germany	Visit British Forces	RAF

Minister for the Armed Forces
Date	Destination	Purpose	Aircraft type
FINANCIAL YEAR 1995–96
21–25 April	Bosnia/Turkey	Visit UK troops and represent the UK government at Gallipoli commemorations	RAF— £26,973
2–3 May	Hamburg, Germany	Attend VE commemorations	RAF

The RAF cost of this visit was borne by The prince of Wales, who was accompanied by the

Minister for the Armed Forces.

Minister of State for Defence Procurement
Date	Destination	Purpose	Aircraft type
FINANCIAL YEAR 1993–94
5 April	Germany	Bilateral talks	RAF
16–18 April	Oman	Promoting defence sales	Civil
28June	Netherlands	Promoting defence sales	RAF
16 September	Poland	To accompany HRH the Duke of Edinburgh	RAF
8–10 October	Kuwait	Promoting defence sales	Civil
6–7 November	Dubai	Promoting defence sales	RAF
18 November	Germany	Promoting defence sales	RAF
15–17 December	Saudi Arabia	Promoting defence sales	Civil
20–22 December	Bosnia	Visiting British troops	RAF
6–9 January	Oman	Promoting defence sales	Civil
28–31 January	Riyadh	Promoting defence sales	Civil
FINANCIAL YEAR 1994–95
26–29 April	USA	Bilateral talks	Civil
12 September	Germany	Bilateral talks	RAF
18–21 September	Far East	Five power defence arrangements ministerial meeting	Civil
27–29 September	USA	Bilateral talks	Civil
22–23 October	UAE	Bilateral talks and promoting defence sales	Civil
2 February	France	Bilateral talks	Civil
5–6 February	Germany	Bilateral talks	RAF
17–20 March	UAE	Bilateral talks and promoting defence sales	Civil
23 March	France	Bilateral talks	RAF
FINANCIAL YEAR 1995–96
21–23 April Kuwait		Promoting defence sales	Civil

Minister of State for Defence Procurement
Date	Destination	Purpose	Aircraft type
27 April	France	Bilateral talks	RAF— £1,807
19 May	Germany	Bilateral talks	RAF— £2,152
12 June	France	Visit to Paris air show and bilateral talks	RAF— £1,430

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence
Date	Destination	Purpose	Aircraft type
FINANCIAL YEAR 1993–94
20 April	RAF Bruggen	Disbandment of RAF Germany	RAF
23 April	Germany	Meet Federation of Army Wives BAOR	Civil
12 May	Bielefield, Germany	Visit ACE Rapid Reaction Corps	Civil
24 June	Germany	Disbanding of the Northern Army Group and 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force	RAF
14–17 September	Turkey	Defence Sales visit to IDEF	Civil
29 September	Bielesfeld, Germany	Federation of Army Wives Conference	RAF
21–23 October	Albania	Bilateral	RAF
1–3 December	Russia	125th Anniversary of St. Petersburgh Declaration followed	RAF
6–9 December	Malaysia	Defence sales visit to LIMA 93	Civil
13 December	Normandy	Looking at sites for D Day Celebrations	RAF
19 January	Grafenwoker, Germany	View Combined Arms Tactical Trainer	RAF
20–22 February	Singapore	Bilateral	Civil
28–30 March	Bosnia	Visit British troops	RAF
FINANCIAL YEAR 1994–95
19–20 April	Malaysia	Bilateral	Civil
6 June	Normandy	D Day	RAF
29 June	Sennelager, Germany	British Forces Germany Environmental Day	RAF
26–27 August	Slovakia	50th Anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising	RAF
3–7 October	Greece and Slovenia	Defendory 94 and Bilateral	Civil to Athens then RAF
19 October	Herford, Germany	Federation of Army Wives Conference	RAF
7–11 November	Turkey	Bilateral	Civil

Total Ministerial expenditure on commercial foreign air travel for 1993–94, 1994–95 and 1995–96 to date is as follows:
Financial year	Expenditure £
1993–94	73,767
1994–95	72,455
1995–96 to date	5,660

Before April 1995 the cost of RAF flights was not separately identified and, together with the numbers of officials, could only be provided at disproportionate cost.On visits of this kind, accommodation is normally provided by Her Majesty's Ambassador, Higher Commissioner, other Government representative, or by the hosts.