(2) how much was spent on travel by officials of the House (a) within and (b) outside the UK in each of the last 10 years; and what percentage of the House’s overall expenditure was spent on such travel in each such year.
House of Commons staff travel within the UK and abroad chiefly when accompanying groups of Members on select committee visits, on delegations to international assemblies, on bilateral visits or for conferences. The cost of the staff element of official travel with Members cannot be disaggregated from the total, which amounted to some £2.65 million for UK and overseas visits in 2006-07. There have also been a small number of overseas visits by individual officials, mainly for the purpose of strengthening democratic institutions in other countries.