UK Govt Travel Expenditures See 11% Increase Despite Plans to Save – Report

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Travel expenditures of civil servants in the United Kingdom increased by at least 11% since 2010-11 reaching 546 million pounds ($815 million) despite the measures introduced to cut the costs, said a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) released Wednesday.

"In 2013-14 central government identified £546 million of travel expenditure… Analysis of central government data suggests that travel expenditure has increased by at least 11% in real terms since 2010 —11," the report said, adding that in 2013-24 UK government introduced measures to save on travel costs by switching the majority of officials to economy class tickets.

According to NAO, in 2013-14, 99 percent of British civil servants who travelled by rail bought standard class tickets and 94 percent of those travelling by air booked economy class. However, more than 40 percent of the officials' rail tickets were "anytime flexible," or the most expensive standard tickets available.

The report named officials from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defense among those, travelling business and first class more often than the others.

According to the report, UK civil servants have spent a total of $270 on rail travel and flights and another $85 million on hotels.

The most common foreign travel destination for the UK officials in 2013-14 were the United States and Germany.

Public spending has been severely cut in the United Kingdom since the government implemented its five-year austerity program in 2010. The program was later prolonged to 2018.