By Mark Smulian
2 November 2010
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was Whitehall’s greatest user of cars last year, figures issued by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond have shown.
In the year to March 2010, Dbis ministers had seven cars provided by the Government Car and Despatch Agency at a total cost of £694,236.23
The next greatest user was the Department for Education (then known as the Department for Children, Schools and Families), which had six ministerial cars costing £489,193 in all.
In total, 78 ministers had cars at a total cost of £6.7m, an average of £86,385 each.
Rules on ministerial car use changed after the general election, with the coalition encouraging ministers to use public transport where practicable and to otherwise use the government car pool.
The number of ministers entitled to an allocated government car and driver ‘has been kept to a minimum’, Hammond said.
