Travel and expenses

Effectively fulfilling the role of the University in society can require an element of travel to be undertaken by students, employees and associates.

Alongside the potential benefits, any travel, whether UK or international also represents risks and impacts for the individual and organisation.

As a responsible institution, the University will seek to mitigate risks and reduce negative impacts as far as practical before approving travel requests. As one of Wales’ largest organisations, we believe that, rather than doing the minimum in order to fulfil our obligations, sustainability should be integral to the values of the University, be embedded in our operations and central in our engagement with stakeholders.

The Travel and Expenses policy and associated guidance aims to ensure that:

• travel is only undertaken when the risks and benefits have all been considered and appropriately authorised
• the environmental sustainability of University travel is given appropriate consideration
• travel costs represent value for money for the University and its funders
• expense claims are in line with HMRC guidance, so claimants do not incur any additional personal tax liability
• the expenses process is utilised for the reimbursement of legitimate expenses only (and is not utilised as an alternative method of procurement of operational goods and services).

The policy details what can and cannot be reimbursed to claimants for both travel and non-travel related expenses.

The policy is supplementary to the University’s Financial Regulations.

In the event of any conflict between the regulations and policy, the regulations will prevail.