Departmental Air Travel

Mr. Bain
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the savings in travel costs likely to be made consequent on the use by officials of his Department of economy class tickets for flights of up to five hours.

Chris Bryant
As part of a review of allowances we have proposed that all journeys of up to five hours (by train or air) should be taken in economy/standard class (including Eurostar). The Trade Union Side are now consulting their members about the proposals in the review. We estimate that using economy class for journeys up to five hours would save in the region of £600,000 per annum.