Departmental Travel

Simon Hughes
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much his Department has spent on (a) Ministerial cars and drivers, (b) taxis, (c) train travel, (d) the use of helicopters, (e) airline tickets and (f) chartered aeroplanes in each year since 1997.

Dan Norris
DEFRA came into being in June 2001. The Government Car and Despatch Agency is responsible for providing ministerial cars and drivers. I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Chris Mole) of 21 July 2009, Official Report, columns 1218-1220W.

From information held centrally, the core-Department’s expenditure on taxis for the financial year 2006-07 onwards is:

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|Financial year      |£      |
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|2006-07             |268,095|
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|2007-08             |346,458|
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|2008-09             |299,401|
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|2009-10 to September|59,996 |
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From information held centrally, the core-Department’s expenditure on air and train travel from July 2006 is:

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|                      |Air      |Rail     |
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|July 2006-March 2007  |1,107,106|1,868,731|
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|April 2007-March 2008 |1,505,097|1,978,850|
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|April 2008-March 2009 |1,049,256|1,733,417|
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|April 2009-August 2009|663,886  |936,916  |
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There is no information held centrally on the use of helicopters and chartered aeroplanes.