Chris Mole (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

I regret to inform the House that some of the figures in the answer given to Parliamentary Question 276453 on 2 June, Hansard, column 298W, to the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. T. Villiers) about how much (a) the Department and (b) its agencies spent on car hire in each year since 2001 were incorrect.

When preparing an answer to a current question it has come to light that there are some discrepancies with the data submitted for the previous answer given due to two errors in the transposition of data. The Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA) has also provided data for the last three financial years, whereas none was given by them for the previous question. They advise that figures are now available following improvements in record keeping and their undertaking of a contract to maintain vehicles on behalf of the Olympic development authority has resulted in an increase in car hire.

The figures have been checked and the correct answer is below.

It is not possible to provide costs for the Department for Transport or for the Driving Standards Agency in 2002-03 because the information is not available in a comparable format.