Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 7 April 2014 to Question 190548, how much his Department has spent on first class (a) flight travel for Ministers and officials in each year since 2010 and (b) rail travel for Ministers and officials in 2014 to date.

Since 2013, the Ministry of Justice has prohibited first class travel and business class travel for flights of less than eight hours duration, except for flights of five hours and over where there is a compelling business need, such as where staff are required to go straight into a meeting following a flight or where they are required to work on a flight. An exception to this ban is to support the needs of some disabled staff carrying out their duties.

The Ministry of Justice publishes within its transparency data the costs of all flights taken by Ministers and Senior Civil Servants (http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-cabinet-office / http://data.gov.uk/dataset/flights-booked-through-gps-framework-moj) Flights taken by staff below this level are not centrally recorded.

Spend data from 2012 onwards for first class air travel is available through the Redfern travel contract. This data is provided below:

2012 £605.32

2013 £0

2014 £0

In one instance, the MoJ booked a business class ticket. This ticket covered a four leg journey. On one of those legs, a passenger was seated in first class due to a lack of availability of a business class seat.

This includes expenditure by one of the MoJ’s Non Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB).

This level of information prior to 2012 is not held centrally.

The total Rail spend data through the Redfern travel contract for Ministers and officials, in 2014 to date is: £34,943.53. This has decreased by 99% since 2009, when the annual spend on rail travel for Ministers and officials[1] was £3,989,713, This shows a reduction of £1,589,275 over the period. The Secretary of State has put in place a ban on all first-class rail travel. An exception to this ban is to support the needs of some disabled staff in carrying out their duties, where it is reasonable to do so, and which exceptionally justify the use of first-class rail travel.

[1] Spend information is available only for the period April to December 2009.