Department for hypocrisy: Energy and climate change ministers have spent £1.5m on flights since Coalition came to power



Department has taken 3,500 flights, with 362 in business class

Shelled out for 32 short-haul trips to Glasgow and Manchester

Shelling out: The Department spent more than £1.2m on flights between May 2010 and February 2012 when Chris Huhne was in charge

Ministers and officials at the ‘green’ department for energy and climate change have clocked up a bill of over £1.5 million for nearly 3,500 flights since the coalition came to power.

More than ten per cent of the flights - 362 - were business class but they made up over a third of a cost - £600,000.

DECC shelled out for business class for 32 domestic flights to short-haul destinations such as Glasgow and even Manchester, both easily accessible by train.

The department spent £250,000 on 1,228 domestic flights in two and a half years to destinations that are often easily reachable by train.

The department is tasked with including air travel in the European Union Emissions Trading System - which makes flights more costly for those paying out of their own pockets.

Most of the costs were amassed while former Lib Dem Cabinet Minister, Chris Huhne, was in charge. The department clocked up £1,227,429 in costs during his reign from May 2010 until February 2012.

DECC also paid £460 for a flight to Aberdeen according to the figures, unearthed by the Taxpayers Alliance in a Freedom of Information request to the department.

The huge costs led the Taxpayers Alliance to label the flights as a ‘extravagant waste’ and an ‘breath-taking hypocrisy’ for the department which is meant to champion cuts to greenhouse gases.

The figures also showed that 3,017 flights were taken in economy class at a cost of £835,000.

Business class flights were also booked from London to cities in Europe such as Budapest (£699), Berlin (£474), Madrid (£271) and Cologne (£370).

A bill of £500 was racked up for flying first class, from London to Lisbon - despite it breaching the department’s own policy.

Shelling out: The department flew business class for 32 domestic flights to short-haul destinations such as Glasgow and even Manchester, both easily accessible by train

Despite its ‘eco-friendly’ credentials, the department also embarked on air travel to far-flung destinations such as Auckland, Cape Town, Jakarta, Washington, New York, Nairobi, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

These long-haul destinations cost more than £4000 each in flight costs alone.

The costliest flight was £5,792 from Cancun to London.

A London to Cape Town jaunt cost £5,396, while two flights to Santiago cost £5,190 each.

Some £123,551 was spent on 116 ‘premium economy’ flights.

DECC has a headcount of 1,286 staff, which works out to three flights per employee.

Anger: Matthew Sinclair said the report showed 'extravagant waste from a department which can¿t be trusted with more and more of our money, while others work hard to make savings'

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘Despite being one of the departments making air travel more expensive for people paying their own way, the Department of Energy and Climate has spent an astonishing amount of taxpayers’ money on flights.

‘This looks like breath-taking hypocrisy and extravagant waste from a department which can’t be trusted with more and more of our money, while others work hard to make savings.’

He added: ‘Officials urgently need to explain why they spend so much money on so many business class flights in particular. If Ministers can’t provide a satisfactory explanation for the number and cost of the air fares their department is racking up, then there have to be serious sanctions for officials who have left taxpayers with such an unfair bill.’

The department defended its extensive air travel.

A DECC spokesman said: ‘The department’s international work, which includes securing the nation’s future energy supplies, carrying out negotiations with other countries and international organisations on energy and climate change issues, and regulating the North Sea oil and gas industry among other things, means that sometimes air travel is unavoidable.

He added: ‘Any such travel is for business purposes only, and we are careful to ensure that the most cost-effective and suitable flights are identified.

‘This Government has never said people who care about climate change must not fly: it’s not surprising that for some journeys, especially over very long distances when time is a factor, flying is the common sense option.’