FOI release

Hiring vehicles

Published 16 December 2010

We were asked

1. The monthly and overall costs of hiring and leasing vehicles from 2007-08 up to the first six months of 2010-11.

2. How many vehicles leased or hired each month, the make and model of the vehicles and who they were hired or leased for.

3. Details of the journeys made in the Ministerial car by the Secretary of State since the General Election.

4. Details of the monthly and overall costs of hiring taxis during 2007-08 up to the first six months of 2010-11.

5. Details of the three longest journeys in distance by taxi and the three shortest journeys

6. The current number of staff employed by the Wales Office.

0.1 Hiring and leasing of vehicles (Points 1, 2 and 3)

In 2007-08, the Wales Office leased two Ministerial cars from the Government Car and Dispatch agency, both Toyota Prius. One was based in Cardiff and one in London. The monthly charge for the two cars was £8331.82; giving an overall annual charge of £99,981.84. The Secretary of State’s car at the time was supplied by the Northern Ireland Office.

In 2008-09 and 2009-10, the Wales Office leased two cars in London (both Toyota Prius) and one car in Cardiff (Jaguar). In 2008-09, the monthly charge was £14,478.91; giving an overall annual charge of £173,746.92. In 2009-10, the monthly charge was £14,191.79; giving an overall annual charge of £170,301.48.

Following the general election the new Secretary of State, in a bid to reduce costs, asked for the lease for the second Ministerial in London to be cancelled. This took effect in September 2010. Therefore, currently we have one car (Toyota Prius) in London and one car (Jaguar) in Cardiff. The monthly cost of leasing the cars in 2010-11 is £15,104.33 up until September 2010, with the monthly cost then dropping to £8,138.35.

As ministerial cars are leased on a monthly basis for use by Ministers, no record is kept of individual journeys made by the Secretary of State.

Cars have occasionally been hired for officials who have needed to travel to meetings, when public transport has not been available to get them to their destination. We do not have any record of the cars provided in these cases. In 2007-08 we did not hire any cars, in 2008-09 we hired 2 cars at a total cost of £143.44 and in 2009-10 we hired 3 cars at a total cost of £384.82. No cars have been hired in the first six months of 2010-11.

0.2 Hiring Taxis (Points 4 and 5)

A breakdown of costs for taxi fares is shown below. All journeys were in accordance with the departmental travel and subsistence guidance, and permissible only in circumstances such as no public transport being available or when staff have a disability that requires special arrangements (including Access to Work).

0.3 Cost of taxi fares for officials

</tbody> </table> We do not record the length of these journeys and are therefore unable to list the shortest or longest. ###Current number of staff employed (Point 6) The Wales Office currently employs 55 members of staff.

2007-08</p> (Apr – Mar) </td>		2008-09</p> (Apr – Mar) </td>		2009-10</p> (Apr – Mar) </td>		20010-11</p> (Apr – Sep) </td> </tr>
£149.00		£293.40		£456.20		£ 350.70
£218.00		£585.95		£563.20		£ 418.80
£200.20		£344.20		£889.85		£ 392.10
£307.00		£425.60		£280.60		£ 381.00
£174.90		£186.80		£443.40		£ 424.90
£77.60		£366.20		£619.40		£ 474.30
£295.60		£570.00		£981.73
£342.70		£486.10		£538.05
£363.60		£950.35		£389.00
£314.62		£242.00		£526.10
£624.73		£230.20		£499.30
£355.68		£824.30		£850.71
£3,423.63		£5,505.10		£7,037.54		£2,441.80