Taxis

Mr. Prisk
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much was claimed in expenses for taxi travel by officials from (a) his Department and (b) its executive agencies in (i) 2006-07, (ii) 2005-06, (iii) 2004-05, (iv) 2003-04 and (v) 2002-03; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. McFadden
Taxi spend incurred by officials in UK and Overseas travel is as follows:

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|£      |
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|2006-07|349,075|
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|2005-06|386,443|
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|2004-05|342,928|
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Details for 2003-04 and for 2002-03 have not been retained and are therefore unavailable.

Letter from Gareth Jones, 27 October 2008:

I am responding on behalf of Companies House to your recently tabled Parliamentary Question to the Minister of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Taxi fares form part of overall expense claims and are not recorded separately. The amount claimed in cost. Companies House does however have an account with a local taxi company and the amounts paid were as follows:

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|Financial year|Amount spent on taxi account (£)|
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|2006/7        |17,887                          |
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|2005/6        |17,484                          |
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|2004/5        |16,924                          |
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|2003/4        |14,519                          |
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|2002/3        |13,964                          |
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Letter from Stephen Speed, 27 October 2008:

The Minister of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has asked me to reply to your question how much was claimed in expenses for taxi travel by officials from (a) his Department and (b) its executive agencies in (i) 2006-07, (ii) 2005-06, (iii) 2004-05, (iv) 2003-04 and (v) 2002-03.

The Insolvency Service Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform replied to a similar question in PQ 3644 of 2007 that the Service is unable to extract details of annual taxi expenses as they are not separately recorded. All claims made in August 2008 were sampled which showed costs of £1,510 for taxi fares in that month. We therefore reported that we do not expect the annual cost of taxi fares to be more than £20,000.