Written question asked by Philip Davies (Conservative) on Tuesday, 22 July 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 October 2008. It was answered by Gareth Thomas (Labour) on Monday, 6 October 2008 on behalf of the Companies House.

Taxis

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on taxis in the last financial year for which figures are available.

Answer: The Department spend £278,410 on taxis in the financial year 2007-08. This figure includes taxi spend in both the UK and overseas. I have asked the chief executives of the Department's agencies to reply to you directly.Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 6 October 2008:"I am responding on behalf of Companies House to your recently tabled Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.""The amount spent on Companies House's taxi account in the financial year 2007/8 was £22,332."Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 6 October 2008:"The Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has asked me to reply to you directly on behalf of The Insolvency Service in respect of your question (2007/3644) asking how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on taxis in the last financial year for which figures are available.""The Insolvency Service's policy is that public transport must be used in preference to taxis on all possible occasions.""The Service is unable to extract details of annual taxi expenses for the year 2007-2008, but a sample data has been extracted which shows costs of £1,510 for a month. We would not expect annual taxi fares to be more than £20,000."

Secondary information