Holyrood limos cost almost £1m

Published on Friday 6 August 2010 17:15

THE Scottish Government spent almost £1 million on ministerial limousines in the last year.

A total of 929,899 was forked out on ferrying around ministers and senior government officials, and a further 65,759 on private hire vehicles.

The cost of running and maintaining a 25-car fleet, plus staff costs, increased by more than 21,000 compared to the previous period and by more than 58,000 on two years ago.

Overall, the combined cost of the Government Car Service and the use of private hire companies resulted in an increase of around 15,000 for the period 2009-10 compared to the previous year.

Labour's Lord George Foulkes, Lothians MSP, said: "This is an astonishing figure and at this rate it will not be long before the bill just for ministerial limousines is 1 million a year."

A Scottish Government spokesman yesterday said: "The Scottish Government's overall travel costs decreased by more than 1 million from 5.9 million to 4.9 million in 2009-10 and the costs of private hire car journeys have also dropped significantly."