Government travel and hotel bills revealed

The cost of government spending on flights, hotels, food and hire cars

The government’s revealed it spends around a million pounds a year on flights, hotels, food and hire cars.

The figures have emerged in a written answer to a question in Tynwald this week from Onchan MHK Zac Hall.

He asked Chief Minister Allan Bell to break down the spending by each department or board over the past five years.

Top of the list is the Department of Health and Social Care, which spends around £130,000 a year on flights alone.

The data reveals the three big spenders for off-Island travel are the Departments of Health and Social Care, Education and Children and Economic Development.

In the figures for the first time last year was the Cabinet Office, which spent almost £32,000 on hotel rooms and £110,000 on flights over twelve months.

By contrast, the Office of Fair Trading is the lowest spender: laying out a total of just £2,500 since 2010.

By contrast, even the general registry spent roughly four times that amount.