The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) is unable to provide this information in the format requested. However, the following table provides details of the Department's invoiced expenditure for travel by train, excluding Agencies and Executive non-departmental public bodies, since the 2001-02 financial year when an expenditure code for train costs was created:
Financial Year Expenditure (£) 2007-08 60,599 2006-07 92,420 2005-06 74,788 2004-05 36,458 2003-04 60,775 2002-03 21,040 2001-02 31,043
The expenditure figures shown in this table include invoiced travel by all employees of the Department.
Train fares can also be reimbursed for staff on official business through travel and subsistence claims. These are posted to the finance system as miscellaneous travel expenses but the isolation of staff costs for train travel would involve a manual investigation of payment vouchers and travel and subsistence claims which could be carried out only at disproportionate cost.
The Department advises that, before any business related journey is made, each member of staff should take into account the most cost effective means of transport, for example mileage costs and car parking. The Northern Ireland Office keeps the cost of travel on official business under regular review.