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Written question asked by Matt Hancock (Conservative) on Tuesday, 27 July 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 September 2010. It was answered by Alistair Burt (Conservative) on Monday, 6 September 2010 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.


Taxis

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much his Department spent on taxi fares in each year since 1997.
Answer

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) currently uses two contracts with private hire taxi companies: Addison Lee, covering the London area; and Raffles Taxis, covering the Milton Keynes area. Both contracts are used for both FCO departmental usage, and FCO Services. As FCO Services has been an independent trading fund since 1 April 2008, their expenditure is recorded and shown separately since that date. The following table shows the breakdown of costs by year.FCO staff travel by the most efficient means of transport, bearing in mind the operational requirement and the need to secure value for money for the public purse. Public transport is used whenever possible and staff avoid using taxis on official business unless it is absolutely necessary. Expenditure is now closely monitored and as a result expenditure in financial year 2009-10 has shown a decrease.Staff should not normally use a taxi at public expense between home and office—nor between airports and central London—except for journeys during the hours when public transport is not running. If it is absolutely necessary for staff to work after 9 pm or before 7 am, they may consider taking a taxi from their destination station to their home address or vice versa.

Taxi expenditure—Addison Lee and Raffles Taxis
£
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
Raffles Taxis 90,302 180,241 172,661 156,201 150,373 143,191 161,708 188,897 See below See below
Addison Lee ¹— ¹— ¹— ¹— ¹— ¹— ¹— 340,531
Raffles Taxis (FCO UK only) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 93,449 61,559
Addison Lee (FCO UK only) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 380,507 270,457
Raffles Taxis (FCO Services only) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 134,067 161,328
Addison Lee (FCO Services only) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 35,089 44,739
¹ Unavailable
Note:
All figures quoted are exclusive of VAT

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
12975; 515 c226-8W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Taxis Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk