Church of England bishops spend £1.3million in a year on travel

From The London Telegraph-

More than 10 per cent of the total covered overseas expenditure including air fares, despite high-profile campaigns by senior clergy urging people to fly less in order to save the environment.

Junior bishops also spent almost £50,000 on gardeners last year – more than MPs are now allowed to claim on their parliamentary expenses.

The 113 bishops of England’s established church have much of their costs covered by the Church Commissioners, who manage a £4.4billion portfolio of property and financial investments.
Figures published for 2008 that £16m was spent on staff salaries, office expenditure, legal costs and travel, up from £14.1m the previous year. More than £700,000 of the additional cost was a result of the once-a-decade gathering of senior Anglican clergy that took place in summer 2008, the Lambeth Conference.

In addition, the commissioners spent £5.1m on bishops’ pay and pensions, together with a further £7.3m on the upkeep of their historic see houses.

A detailed breakdown of the figures shows that bishops spent £1.32m on travel in 2008.
This included £114,193 on overseas travel, including “visits on ecumenical and Anglican Communion business by the Archbishop of Canterbury and his staff, the Archbishop of York and diocesan and suffragan bishops travelling at the request of the Archbishops and representing the Church of England”. This is a fall from the 2007 figure of £179,309, however.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6337853/Church-of-England-bishops-spend-1.3million-in-a-year-on-travel.html