Transport Allowances

Mr. Hayes
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost was to his Department of transport allowances in the last year for which figures are available.

Alan Johnson
Details of travel expenditure incurred by the Department over the last financial year are set out as follows:

2005/06: £6,197,029.01

The expenditure does not include costs for domestic and foreign travel that may be charged to a programme account, expenditure incurred as a result of commission on foreign exchange or some miscellaneous travel expenses incurred by individual travellers during the course of the visit. These cannot be easily extracted within disproportionate cost.

Since 1999 the Government have published, on an annual basis, the total costs of all ministerial overseas travel and a list of all visits by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500. This information is available in the Library. Information for the financial year 2004-05 was published on 21 July 2005, Official Report, column 158WS. Information for the financial year 2005-06 is in the process of being collated and will be published shortly.

All travel under taken by DfES Ministers and civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the “Ministerial Code” and the “Civil Service Management Code”.