Ministers' fines for parking cost taxpayer £40,000

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Ministers and senior Whitehall mandarins have racked up tens of thousands of pounds in parking fines - all paid for by the taxpayer.

Under Labour, almost £40,000 of public money has been used to bail out members of the Government whose chauffeurs park their official cars on yellow lines.

Last year the vehicles, which are also available to permanent secretaries, collected more than 100 tickets between them - including one for Gordon Brown's personal car.

While members of the public had to cough up a record £173million over penalty notices last year, Ministers' fines were met by the Government Car And Despatch Agency - a branch of the Department for Transport (DfT).

The Department attempted to justify the cost by claiming Ministers and senior civil servants had been forced to park illegally for "security reasons".

Since 1999, Whitehall's fleet of Jaguars cost the taxpayer £38,760 in parking fines.

Last year, the total came to just under £6,000.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has found the worst offender is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with 32 tickets costing £1,750. Even the DfT managed to clock up a couple of fines.

Gordon Brown's car was issued with its £60 ticket on July 13 last year.

Barrie Segal, of the campaigning group Appeal Now, said: "You pay, I pay, why can't Ministers pay for their own tickets? It's not as if they are driving themselves. I'm sure their drivers have time to find somewhere to park up."

A DfT spokesman said: "The Government Car and Despatch Agency pays tickets when they arise in circumstances where security requirements dictate the parking location."

And the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "Parking restrictions in Central London make it difficult to deliver secure or sensitive documents without putting security at risk."