Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff in his Department and non-departmental public bodies receive (a) home to work travel allowance, (b) a car allowance and (c) subsidised health insurance.

Joseph Johnson

If staff are on a detached duty or overseas postings they can claim for certain travel expenses. Out of 2514 employees in BIS HQ, fewer than 20 employees are paid reasonable extra travel costs. These are paid for a limited period.

There are no BIS policies that allow the payments of car allowances or subsidised health insurance to employees. However BIS has a legal obligation to honour contractual arrangements when staff join through a TUPE transfer including car allowances and subsidised health cover. Due to TUPE transfers, there are fewer than 20 employees paid car allowances or subsidised health cover. These benefits would not be renewed for new employees.

As the number of payments are so low, exact numbers have not been provided to ensure that individual employees are not identifiable.

The requested information is not held by BIS in respect of non-Departmental Public Bodies.