§ Mr. Stoddartasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he has yet obtained information as to how many cars are provided for the use of officers of the three Services at brigadier level or equivalent and above; what is the number of Service personnel allocated as drivers to this particular group and the total cost to public funds; and if he will publish the information in the Official Report.
§ Dr. GilbertOutside London headquarter offices of the Ministry of Defence, the three Services provide 262 official cars for officers of the rank of brigadier and equivalent or above. The allocation of drivers to these cars can be either military or civilian, but at any one time there are up to 150 Service personnel employed on driving duties.
Separate costings are not available for each individual car, but, using the standard costs provided for general accounting purposes within the Ministry of Defence, the full cost to public funds for these cars amounts to approximately £635,000 per annum plus the drivers' wages. This figure takes into account running costs, repairs, and full depreciation charges.
The three Services also make use of car pooling facilities at headquarters locations. These car pools have been excluded from the above analysis because the cars are used to provide a wider service than the cars used solely by senior military officers. In central London, for example, there is a pool of 59 cars which are available to meet the needs of Ministers and Ministry of Defence headquarters' staff generally.
I regret that, because drivers may be either military or civilian and of varying ranks, it is not possible to provide accu- 238W rate figures for the total wage bill without disproportionate effort.