To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much his Department and its predecessors spent on tickets for (a) air and (b) rail travel for (i) Ministers, (ii) special advisers and (iii) civil servants in his Department which were not used in each of the last three years. (280008)

In BIS the criteria for booking travel should be value for money, staff travelling on official business must take advantage of any cheap facilities which maybe available including restricted non refundable tickets wherever practical.

The Department does not separately record details of unused tickets by Ministers, special advisers and civil servants.

For the period April 2008 to March 2009 the total amount of tickets booked through our travel booking agents and refunded was:

Details for previous years are not centrally recorded due to the number of Government changes to the Department to provide this information would entail disproportionate cost.

All expenditure is incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many journeys and at what cost the Secretary of State has made in a ministerial capacity by (a) airplane, (b) train, (c) helicopter and (d) car since October 2008; what class of travel was used for each airplane and train journey; and on what dates such journeys took place. (291678)

The Cabinet Office has published a list of all overseas visits undertaken by Ministers costing £500 or more during the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009. The list provides details of the date, destination and purpose of all such visits and the cost of Ministers’ travel and accommodation where appropriate. Copies of the list have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

My right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State for Transport has published on 16 July 2009, Official Report, column 80WS, the number of and cost to Departments of the provision of allocated cars and drivers by the Government Car and Despatch Agency to Ministers during 2008-09.

All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code.