§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will end the provision of cars and drivers to senior civil servants for any part of the journey to and from their homes and offices or if he will take steps to tax such benefits.
§ Mr. HayhoeNo. As I told the hon. Member in my reply to his question on 27 January, when senior civil servants use official cars they do so in the circumstances referred to in paragraph 2348a of the Civil Service pay and conditions of service code—a copy of which is in the Library. They, therefore, do so in the public interest. The tax treatment of this use of official cars is exactly the same as that for cars provided for employees generally; because the cars are pooled cars and their use for home-to-work travel is incidental to their official use, there is no liability to tax.
Mr. ArthurLewis asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will arrange for former Prime Ministers to be charged for the use of their official cars, or to be charged tax on the benefits of such use.
§ Mr. HayhoeThose former Prime Ministers who are allowed to use a Government car service car on security grounds are already charged for any private or party use they make of it.