Israel: Overseas Trade

Mr. Amess
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many officials of each grade in his Department visited Israel (a) in 2008 and (b) in 2009 to date.

Mr. McFadden
The number of BERR officials by grade who visited Israel in 2008 was:

2—Range 6 (Executive Officer)

3—Range 9 (Senior Executive Officer)

1—Range 10 (Grade7)

1—Range 11 (Grade 6)

2—Senior Civil Servant

For the period January 2009 to March 2009, the number of BERR officials by grade who visited Israel was:

1—Range 10 (Grade 7)

All travel is undertaken in accordance with the Civil Service Code and Civil Service Management Code. In BERR the criteria for booking travel is value for money based on cost and convenience.