The Welsh Assembly Government was found to have spent £5 million on hire cars over the past 5 years, it has been revealed.

The assembly had made the rental cars available through its contract with Europcar UK.

Kirsty Williams, Welsh Liberal Democrats leader, uncovered the information. Ms Williams initially approached the First Minister for Wales, Rhodri Morgan, for answers to questions regarding rental expenditure but found his explanation unsuitable and then referred to the Freedom of Information Act in an attempt to obtain the information.

The vehicles were needed by government staff and employees as their work involved frequent travel throughout the country. Staff claimed they were an unavoidable necessity.

Ms Williams responded by saying “Of course, I understand that civil servants need to travel across Wales to attend meetings but £1 million a year is an extortionate amount of money to spend on this.”

The Liberal Democrat leader also suggested that the government utilise video conferencing technology to reduce the amount of travel time, adding that a “pool of low carbon energy efficient cars to reduce the amount they spend on civil servant travel and play their part in lowering CO2 emissions in Wales” would be more environmentally sustainable.

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