Two-thirds of ministerial cars diesel

The Scottish Government has been told to “practise what they preach” after it emerged two-thirds of ministerial vehicles are diesel.

Plans to reduce emissions will see highly-pollutant vehicles banned from city centres in Scotland by 2020, with a further ambition to phase out traditionally-fuelled vehicles by 2032.

However, new figures reveal that 17 out of 25 ministerial vehicles use diesel engines, which has been described as “embarrassing” and “disappointing”.

Yannick Read, of the Environmental Transport Association, said: “It is extremely disappointing that two-thirds of Scottish ministerial vehicles are diesel-powered, but we suspect this ‘do as we say and not as we do’ approach to air pollution is echoed by many areas of government around Britain – especially at a local level – so we would urge all departments to practice what they preach and invest in alternative fuel vehicles.”

Scottish Labour environment spokeswoman Claudia Beamish urged the Government to consider replacing the diesel cars in favour of greener transport and the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ Mariam Mahmood added: “This is embarrassing – SNP ministers should be leading by example.”

The Scottish Government wants the country to phase out petrol and diesel-powered vehicles by 2032.