To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost of air travel by officials of the Rural Payments Agency was in 2006-07; and how much carbon dioxide was offset in relation to these flights. (164508)

The cost of air travel by Rural Payment Agency (RPA) officials in 2006-07 was £344,921.84.

While the RPA does not currently offset its carbon emissions it plans to do so in the near future and is actively looking at the possibility of backdating this offsetting using the fund being developed by DEFRA. More generally, the RPA takes sustainable development issues seriously. In 2006 all main RPA sites achieved the ISO 14001 environmental management standard and currently RPA is developing a revised set of targets for its sustainable development action plan.