Written question asked by Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour) on Thursday, 9 December 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 13 December 2010. It was answered by Peter Luff (Conservative) on Wednesday, 12 January 2011 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Addison Lee

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether (a) his Department and (b) the public bodies for which his Department is responsible contract services from Addison Lee private hire taxi company.

Answer: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its agencies hold no contracts with the Addison Lee private hire taxi company. We do, however, have an account with the company which is used to meet urgent travel requirements in London when no other suitable form of transport is available. Use of this account is under strict line management control, and the total spend during the last financial year of 2009-10 was under £300.Staff may only use a taxi for official duty when there is a business benefit to the MOD or when it saves money. We are constraining the amount of travel undertaken in the present economic conditions.

Secondary information