Whitehall's £1.5m taxi bill

It may never tire of telling us to use public transport, but the Government spends more than £4,000 a day on taxis, incurring a bill of almost £1.5m a year, new figures show.

The Foreign Office spent £525,026 on taxis last year, and at the Treasury it was £111,000. The Department of Health spent £329,267, and the International Development Department £108,211. Even the Transport Department managed to run up £55,079 worth of rides.

But the true figure could be much higher as some departments have not revealed their bills, and the sum does not include rides taken outside the contracts with taxi firms.

Tory MP John Bercow said the cost was "exorbitant", adding: "Meanwhile, the public services on which people depend are not getting better."