£16m bill for civil servants’ flights
HYPOCRITICAL ministers allowed civil servants to make at least 210,000 domestic flights last year, at the same time telling cash-strapped taxpayers to cut carbon emissions.
Government employees travelled an estimated 69million miles criss-crossing Britain – enough to circle the equator 3,000 times or 290 trips to the moon – at a cost to the taxpayer of £16million.
The most frequent flyers were staff at the Ministry of Defence, who spent £6.5million last year on 175,342 internal commercial flights. They were closely followed by staff in charge of job centres and benefit payments to Britain’s poorest families.
Yvette Cooper’s Department for Work and Pensions, which employs 111,000 staff, booked 25,860 flights at a cost of £3million.
A department spokesman insisted every one of the flights, most of which were between London and Glasgow or Edinburgh, had been necessary. He said: “We have 85 locations around the country and we have significant numbers of people based in those offices."
“Flying with Ryanair or Easyjet is often cheaper than taking the train. The meetings are really necessary.” There is no requirement in the Civil Service Code to reduce carbon footprints when booking trips, but the spokesman claimed travel policy had changed last summer and been “tightened up”.
He added: “Our preferred option is the train and that’s something we’re actively encouraging right across the civil service now. Britain has signed up to the Kyoto Protocol and the whole country has to reduce its carbon emissions.”
The figures were unearthed by the Liberal Democrats in a series of parliamentary questions. The party’s energy and climate spokesman Simon Hughes said: “Civil servants are spending staggering amounts of taxpayers’ cash flying around the UK.
“Ministers need to get a grip. Government staff should set an example and use trains and video-conferencing more. The Civil Service Code needs to change so that environmental factors are considered when travel bookings are made.”
The Sunday Express has discovered that ministers and civil servants spent at least £38million travelling first class on trains last year.
Again, the biggest spenders were the DWP, which charged taxpayers £13million in 2008-9. Ben Bradshaw’s Department for Culture Media and Sport lived up to its nickname, the Ministry of Fun, spending £5million.
