All around the world for £1.4 million

GLOBETROTTING backbench MPs have received £1.4million of free trips in a year - flying first class, staying in five-star hotels and getting a daily cash allowance.

An Evening Standard investigation has found the taxpayer is funding the journeys of dozens of committee members abroad each month - many from groups concerned with domestic policy.

Destinations between last April and this included New Zealand, China, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and America. Details obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show:

● The education and skills committee went to Australia, Hong Kong and China to investigate higher education, at a cost of almost £100,000.

● The health committee spent more than £50,000 visiting Nashville, Tennessee, to look at IT systems.

● Members of the science and technology committee took a £30,000 trip to Boston and Washington while "investigating the oceans". Their report made one mention of being in Boston.

● The home affairs committee went to Warsaw to look into "home affairs at European Union level".

● MPs on the culture, media and sport committee toured Canadian and American cities, including Vancouver and Seattle, "fact finding for 2012". The destinations have not hosted the summer Olympics.

● The Welsh affairs committee sent a delegation to China to look into "globalisation".

For each trip, MPs had travel and hotel bills paid and were given an allowance to spend each day on meals and travel. The allowance is based on rates issued by the Foreign Office.

There is no need to provide receipts for the money spent - or to return unspent allowances. Ten MPs from the work and pensions committee travelled to Los Angeles and Sacramento in California for a week in June, at a cost of £61,967. They flew Virgin first class plus transfers for £46,000 and spent three nights in the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Beverly Hills, which has hosted George Bush, Tom Hanks and Jack Nicholson.

The committee, there to look at the American benefits system, were given £65 a day spending money - despite being provided with lunch and dinner by the British Consulate General.

MPs on the trip included chairman of the committee Terry Rooney, MP for Bradford North. Mr Rooney, who claimed £126,000 expenses last year - £12,134 of which was for travel - said it had provided valuable international comparisons with British benefits policy.

His report concluded that the efforts made by the American government to simplify their system were interesting - but there were no current plans to reform the system in Britain. Mr Rooney said: "It's all in the report which we submitted after the trip. Read that. I don't have to justify it or comment further." The foreign affairs committee went on 12 trips in 12 months. The most expensive was worth £63,752, to New York and Washington for an inquiry into global security.

They spent two nights in the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, New York, for £4,995 and two nights in the Ritz Carlton Georgetown, Washington, for £7,384. Mike Gapes, committee chairman, said he would "make no apology" as he was doing his job. Members also spent more than £45,000 on a trip to New Zealand to investigate "employment".

Overall, select committees spent £1,418,280 on overseas trips during the last session. A Commons spokesman denied the amounts were excessive and said it was sometimes necessary to pay for interpreters, security or extra transport, which increased the cost.

Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said he recognised the need for foreign visits but was "appalled" by the money being spent on each.

He said the number of trips at the taxpayer's expense was "clearly excessive and will raise a lot of eyebrows among hard-working taxpayers who can barely afford one holiday a year".

BRAZILIAN TRADE IN ARGENTINA, WELSH AFFAIRS IN CHINA ... WHERE THE MPS WENT

ADMIN COMMITTEE - £4,404

Lisbon: European conference on information technology £4,404

COMMUNITIES/LOCAL GOVT - £4,777

Netherlands: Inquiry into the supply of rented housing £4,777

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS - £59,775

Berlin: Inquiry into party funding £4,941. Canada and the USA: Inquiry into party funding £52,525.

Lisbon: EU Presidency Conference £2,309

CULTURE, MEDIA & SPORT - £76,185

Berlin: Conference £1,050.

Athens: Fact-finding on 2012 Olympics £11,356.

Ottawa, Vancouver, Seattle: Fact-finding for 2012 Olympics and tourism £63,188. Brussels: Conference £591

DEFENCE - £167,582

Riga: Conference £793.

Paris: Inquiry into future of Nato £1,191.

Madrid: Inquiry into future of Nato £3,448. Berlin, Germany: Inquiry into the future of Nato £2,865.

Rome: Inquiry into future of Nato £3,134.

Prague: Inquiry into future of Nato £4,293.

Copenhagen: Inquiry into future of Nato £3,651.

The Hague: Inquiry into future of Nato £2,750.

Brussels: Inquiry into future of Nato £5,647.

India and Afghanistan: Inquiry into UK operations £24,918.

Berlin: Conference £1,856

Warsaw: Inquiry into future of Nato £4,083.

Washington DC, Ottawa: Inquiry into the future of Nato £50,247.

Iraq and Kuwait: Inquiry into UK operations £22,973.

Paris, Toulouse: Defence Conference £745. Lisbon: Conference £1,823.

Tbilisi, Ankara: Inquiry into future of Nato £33,165

EDUCATION AND SKILLS - £93,983

Sydney, Canberra: Inquiries into higher education and post-16 skills £46,782.

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing: Inquiry into higher education £47,201

ENVIRONMENT - £11,128

Washington: Climate change meeting £7,355.

Brussels: EU emissions meeting £3,773

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS - £14,339

Stuttgart, Freiburg: Inquiry into climate change £13,729.

Fontainebleau: Protect Our Forests conference £610

EUROPEAN SCRUTINY - £58,733

Helsinki: Conference £3,843

Berlin: Conference £12,630

Berlin: Visit £2,183

Florence, Rome: 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome £2,678

Berlin: Meeting £3,518

Lisbon, Gibraltar: Visit £17,782

Lisbon: Meeting £2,042

Estoril: Meeting £4,635

Brussels: Meeting £1,234

Brussels: Meeting £5,839

Brussels: Meeting £1 ,115

Brussels: Meeting £1,234

HEALTH - £64,676

Nashville, Ottawa: Inquiries into electronic patient record system £54,585

Paris, Amiens: Inquiries into electronic patient record system £10,091

HOME AFFAIRS - £78,654

Kiev: Conference £1,741

Warsaw: Inquiry into home affairs at European Union level £13,137

Berlin: Symposium on criminal procedures £1,093

Lisbon: Conference £1,908

Washington DC: Surveillance inquiry £55,000

Brussels: Inquiry into home affairs at European Union level £5,775

HUMAN RIGHTS - £6,211

Copenhagen, Malmo: Inquiry into the rights of older people £4,755

Strasbourg, Geneva: Inquiry into human rights issues £1,456

INT'L DEVELOPMENT - £128,291

Ethiopia: Water sanitation inquiry £32,840

Cape Town: Conference £7,144

Berlin: Conference £2,098

Vietnam, Thailand: Human rights inquiries £39,867

Sweden: Visit £2,786

Lisbon: Conference £2,483

Afghanistan: Development assistance in insecure environments £35,000

Brussels: Inquiry into development and trade policies £6,073

N IRELAND AFFAIRS - £10,402

Dublin: Inquiry into tourism £6,291

Dublin: Inquiry into Irish prison service £4,111

PROCEDURE - £6,974

Berlin: Inquiry into public relations £6,974

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS - £8,043

Paris: 200th anniversary of French NAO £383

Copenhagen: Visit overseas audit institutions £6,738

Lisbon: EU scrutiny £922

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION - £32,596

Washington DC: Inquiry into lobbying £32,596

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - £41,722

Paris: Inquiry into space policy £3,772

Boston, Washington: Inquiry into investigating the oceans £30,883

Lisbon: Oceans inquiry £6,498.

Geneva: Inquiry into research council institutes £569

TRADE AND INDUSTRY - £77,702

Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo: Inquiry into trade with Brazil £45,949

Vilnius: Inquiry into Europe moving east £7,254

Budapest: Moving east inquiry £10,718

Bratislava: Moving east inquiry £8,596

Brussels: Conference £349

Brussels: Meeting £4,836

TRANSPORT - £11,270

Stockholm: Inquiry into local transport bill £11,270

TREASURY - £50,356

Dublin: Inquiry into unclaimed assets in the financial system £7,111

Berlin: Conference £1,866

Ottawa, Washington DC: Inquiry into Bank of England's monetary policy £38,484

Paris: Seminar £1,106

Lisbon: Conference £1,789

WELSH AFFAIRS - £43,389

Czech Republic, Poland: Inquiry into globalisation £15,261

China: Inquiry into globalisation £28,000

Strasbourg: Seminar £128

WORK AND PENSIONS - £108,495

New Zealand: Inquiry into employment £45,034

Paris: Conference £1,494

California: Inquiry into benefits simplification £61,967