Whitehall spends more than £3.8m on civil servants' taxis

The Government spent over £3.8m on taxis last year - and the meter is still running. Research shows that taxpayers have been paying for civil servants to travel thousands of miles by cab. The Home Office racked up a bill of £806,000, enough to travel round the world in a taxi 17 times.

Parliamentary answers show the Department of Health spent at least £356,000 - which would pay for over 23,000 GP consultations - and the Department for International Development spent £526,000, enough to immunise 26,000 children against disease.

The Department of Transport, which says it favours the increased use of public transport, spent at least £249,297.

The Conservatives said the spending was unnecessary and showed that the Government was not serious about cutting waste.

David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, said: "With cuts in the NHS and prisons overcrowded, there are far better ways to spend £3.8m than ferrying people around Whitehall."