Departmental Vehicles (Hansard, 11 November 1999)

§ Dawn Primarolo

The Treasury's cars are supplied by the Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA). Three of the six cars run on LPG. All new cars supplied under the GCDA contract will run on alternative fuels or will be fitted with the new technology "clean" engine which uses unleaded petrol. The contract to run the minibus, which connects our two London offices, will be renewed on 1 December and the minibus will run exclusively on low-sulphur diesel.

Office for National Statistics

The ONS uses a total of 11 cars within its Registration Inspectorate division. Of these, two are petrol and nine are diesel. There is no definite plan to convert the vehicles to liquid petroleum gas, but they are replaced every three years.

The ONS facilities management division has three diesel vans, of which one is now redundant. There are no plans for conversion as the FM services are in the process of being outsourced—this is scheduled for completion by July 2000.

HM Customs and Excise

The HMC&E have a Departmental fleet which comprises 1,894 vehicles. Obviously the number of vehicles on the fleet is subject to (minimal) daily change in that each Collection regularly dispose of, and subsequently replace, vehicles on a rolling basis. Please note that the Department has no solely liquid petroleum gas vehicles on its fleet.

The current breakdown of the fleet is given in the table.

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Future Plans

A further three vehicles already on fleet are being converted for bi-fuel usage within the next two months. We have no definitive plans to convert existing petrol/diesel vehicles to bi-fuel function on a major scale. The Department is "trialling" the above number of vehicles to determine their viability in meeting both the business need and compliance in meeting "green" obligations. Furthermore, such factors as the infrastructure to ensure that such vehicles represent a realistic, user friendly alternative to petrol/diesel powered vehicles and also the question of residual values are being monitored before a large scale commitment can be given to utilising bi-fuel vehicles on a large scale

We will also be setting a target to reduce the Departmental vehicle fuel consumption by 10 per cent. in the coming year as part of the green initiative and to reduce costs.

We have recently completed a trial with an electric vehicle at Heathrow airport and will analyse the findings before deciding if this type of fuel propulsion is a viable option.

Inland Revenue

The Inland Revenue have submitted a response which includes the Valuation Office Agency, Contributions Agency, National Criminal Intelligence Agency (NCIS) and the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA). Their statement on future plans for PLG conversions also covers the above agencies.

Future Plans

"Both the IR pool and Private User Scheme (PUS) fleet have purchased and are currently running one LPG vehicle, plus we have been trialling them as a long term demos at various locations. We are also assessing the viability of electric vehicles. We have no definite plans for the wholesale conversion of the fleet at present. We are also monitoring the residual values of alternative fuelled vehicles as an on-going exercise before any final decisions are concluded.

We are however down sizing the fleet in terms of the vehicle engine capacities quite substantially, ensuring that the vehicles being used by our offices and individuals meet the business requirement fully. Therefore offering better value for money and a cleaner environment."

The UK Debt Management Office, Government Actuary's Department, National Savings and Royal Mint have no vehicles of their own.

Departments and Agencies	Petrol	Diesel	Petrol/LPG	Total
HM Customs & Excise	1,117	777	¹17	1,894
Inland Revenue	607	800	¹2	1,407
Valuation Office	134	169	0	303
Contributions Agency	118	127	0	245
National Criminal Intelligence Service	135	14	0	149
Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency	5	1	0	6
Royal Mint	²—	²—	²—	²—

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Departments and Agencies	Petrol	Diesel	Petrol/LPG	Total
UK Debt Management Office	²—	²—	²—	²—
Office for National Statistics	2	9	²—	11
HMT	²—	3	3	6
National Savings	²—	²—	²—	²—
Government Actuary's Department	²—	²—	²—	²—
Total	2,118	1,900	20	4,038
¹ This figure is included in the petrol figures (do not count twice)
² None