HC Deb 27 April 2004 vol 420 c889W
Mr. Paul Marsden

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many of his departmental vehicles run on(a) fuel cells, (b) liquefied petroleum gas, (c) petrol, (d) diesel, (e) hybrid fuel and (f) other fuel. [168006]

Mr. Jamieson

The Government as a whole have signed up to various targets for improving the performance of their own vehicle fleet, details of which, together with reports on each Department's progress towards these targets, is available at: www.sustainabledevelopment. gov. uk

The Department for Transport is one of 15 Government Departments which owns or leases alternatively fuelled vehicles. In 2003, 9 per cent. of all Government fleet vehicles (excluding those from the Ministry of Defence) were alternatively fuelled.

The Department for Transport Headquarters has very few departmental vehicles. The Government Car Service (GCS) provides our ministerial cars, one of which is a petrol-electric hybrid vehicle and one of which runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Of the GCS's total ministerial car fleet, 13 per cent. are alternatively fuelled, the majority of which are LPG vehicles.

Over 1,000 vehicles are currently used by the Department for Transport's various agencies, including a number of specialist vehicles. Precise information is not readily available on the fuel; used by all these vehicles, but in 2003, approximately 11 per cent. of the vehicles for which this information was available were LPG vehicles.